REUTERS

Umar Patek, centre, a suspected bomb-maker for Jemaah Islamiah, arrives at a courtroom in Jakarta.

A key Muslim militant arrested in the same Pakistani town where US commandos later killed Osama bin Laden went on trial in Indonesia on Monday on multiple charges including premeditated murder for the 2002 Bali bombings.

Umar Patek, 45, faces six counts including premeditated murder, bomb-making and illegal firearms possession, and prosecutors say they will push for the death sentence.

“Umar Patek's trial is declared open,” judge Lexsy Mamonto said, before prosecutor Widodo Supriady began reading the charges.

“Defendant Umar Patek committed an evil conspiracy with others to commit a crime by bringing in, obtaining, providing or owning firearms, ammunition or explosive materials and other dangerous materials to carry out terrorism,” Supriady read to the court.

Patek had a $1 million bounty on his head under the US rewards for justice programme.

He was extradited to Indonesia after being arrested in January 2011 in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where US commandos later killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

His trial at the West Jakarta district court opened amid tight security, with police saying they had deployed specialist anti-terrorism and anti-mob units across the capital.

Patek arrived at the court in a police armoured vehicle, escorted by armed police commandos.

Wearing a white Muslim skull cap, white pants, white shirt and an orange prison shirt, he smiled broadly to reporters before entering a holding cell inside the court building.

He gave two-thumbs up with his handcuffed hands, but did not say anything.

Indonesian Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said previously there was information that Patek had been trying to meet Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad before his arrest on January 25 last year, but this has not been confirmed.

Months later, US commandos killed bin Laden in a raid in the same town.

The trial at the West Jakarta district court is expected to last over four months as prosecutors present evidence from 86 witnesses.

They will testify to Patek's decade-long involvement in terror, Suharyadi said.

“We will track his activities, from the church attacks in 2000 and Bali attacks in 2002 to his roles in the militant training camp in Aceh (on Sumatra island),” he said.

“He hid information about the camp and harboured terrorists like Dulmatin,” the prosecutor said, referring to the figure who was Indonesia's most-wanted man until he was killed in a 2010 police raid.

According to a copy of the indictment obtained by AFP, Patek will be charged with premeditated murder and assembling bombs for the October 2002 Bali nightclub attacks, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians, and strikes on churches in Jakarta on Christmas Eve of 2000. - Sapa-AFP