Militants on trial over Jakarta hotel bombings
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Three suspected members of late terrorist leader Noordin Mohammad Top's network have gone on trial in Indonesia over twin suicide bombings on two luxury hotels in Jakarta last year.
Bayu Seno, alias Tono, faces the death penalty if convicted on charges of assembling the bombs used in the July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, which killed seven people.
"He assisted in an act of terrorism by way of purposely using violence and stirring up an atmosphere of terror and widespread fear," prosecutor Kiki Ahmad Yani told the West Jakarta district court.
Seno also assisted by buying and transporting explosive materials which were to be used in a plot to assassinate Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, he said.
Two Islamic extremists with backpacks filled with homemade bombs blew themselves up at the hotels, marking the bloody end of a four-year hiatus in attacks attributed to Noordin and Al Qaeda-linked regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah.
In a separate hearing, alleged Islamic militant Pandu Wicaksono was charged with hiding Noordin at his house in Surakarta district in Central Java in June 2009, prosecutor Iwan Setiawan said.
Another suspect, Suramto, is on trial accused of recruiting one of the suicide bombers and buying explosive materials used for the hotel attacks.
Both will face the death penalty if found guilty.
Noordin was killed in a police raid in September, ending one of South East Asia's biggest manhunts.
- AFP
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