View is held in the District Court West Jakarta between large security measures to prevent attacks. AFP

• After the bombings in Bali, Patek fled to Pakistan and Philippines

If found guilty by the bombings in Bali in 2012 it would face death penalty

Jakarta, INDONESIA (12/FEB/2012)-A Indonesia Court began today to try one of the authors of the 2002 bombings on the island of Bali, Indonesian Umar Patek, accused of premeditated murder, making explosives and possession of weapons.

Patek, of 41 years and alleged ringleader of the terrorist organization Yemaa Islamiyah, considered the arm of Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia, faces the death penalty if he is found guilty.

According to the prosecution, Patek prepared the bombs used in the attacks on the Bali tourist, in which 202 people died, and he was involved in the 13 bomb attacks against churches in Jakarta on the eve of the year 2000.

View is held in the District Court West Jakarta between large security measures to prevent attacks by supporters of the Islamist.

After the bombings in Bali, Patek fled to Pakistan and Philippines.

After almost a decade at large, was arrested in January 2011 in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, where few months later American commandos killed Osama bin Laden.

The Islamist was extradited to Indonesia last August to be judged in a process which it is estimated that it will last for several months and that prosecutors will call to testify about a hundred witnesses.

That occurred in October, 2002, Bali bombings consisted of three consecutive explosions: two in an area of bars, clubs and restaurants for tourists, and another, lower power, near the Consulate of United States in Denpasar.

Indonesia executed in 2008 three of the perpetrators of these acts – Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudray – and has jailed tens.

Indonesian Intelligence believed that Patek belongs to the Group of Indonesians, Malaysians and filipinos who travelled to Afghanistan, Pakistan in the 1980s to participate in military exercises.

When they returned to Southeast Asia, they founded Yemaa Islamiyah, an organization whose purpose is to establish an Islamic State in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and southern Philippines and Thailand.