Feb 10, 2010, 6:42 GMT
Jakarta - Two Indonesian Muslim militants were on trial Wednesday for alleged involvement in the bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels last year that killed at least nine people.
Prosecutors charged Amir Abdillah and Arif Susanto with violating anti-terrorism laws enacted weeks after the October 2002 bombings of two nightspots on Bali island that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. The two could face the death penalty.
Prosecutor Vicky Ahmad Yani said Abdillah acted as courier and harboured terrorist suspects. He said Abdillah's home was used as a safe house for the terrorist network and for meetings to discuss plans for the July 17 hotel bombings, which also injured 53 people.
'He played a little role as a courier in the bombings. But he knew details of each meeting,' VIVA news online quoted Yani as saying prior the trial session at the South Jakarta District Dourt.
According to news reports the trial against Abdillah was adjourned until next week.
Abdillah's August 6 arrest also led to the arrests of several other militants, and ending a six-year nationwide manhunt against Malaysian-born terrorist Noordin Top.
Noordin was shot dead along with three accomplices in a police raid on house near the Central Java city of Solo on September 17. A month earlier, another suspect, a florist at the Marriott who facilitated the attacks, was killed in a police raid, also in Central Java.
Terrorist experts said Noordin was a key financier and recruiter for the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group, blamed for attacks in Indonesia from 2000-03, but later formed his own organization after disagreements with more moderate militants within JI.
In mid-December, two other suspected Islamic militants wanted for the hotels bombings were killed in a police raid on a house near Jakarta. Syaefuddin Jaelani and his brother Muhammad Syahrir had been sought for their alleged role in the double bombings.
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