JAKARTA - THE self-confessed head of South-east Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) stands trial in Indonesia on Monday, as the battle against a group blamed for a string of deadly attacks resumes in the court room.
Zarkasih was arrested in June after operations involving the country's anti-terrorist unit, Detachment 88, which also netted the movement's alleged military chief, Abu Dujana.
The arrests were regarded as a major blow for JI, the group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, in which more than 200 people were killed, as well as many other attacks in Indonesia.
Zarkasih, who goes by one name like many Indonesians, is charged under anti-terrorism laws, which means he could face the death penalty, but authorities have not yet laid out the charges.
Police have said that Zarkasih, who they said was also known as Mbah, which means grandfather in the Javanese language, oversaw the movement of arms within JI.
They said he was also involved in the group's operations in Poso, an area on the island of Sulawesi torn by Muslim-Christian fighting which killed about 2,000 people between 1999 and 2001.
At a news conference after his arrest, police showed a video testimony in which the bespectacled Zarkasih said he was the acting head of JI.
Police said he had received military training in Afghanistan and had been an instructor at a militant training camp in the southern Philippines.
Dujana went on trial last week on charges of keeping explosives and sheltering fugitives wanted for deadly attacks.
Under Indonesian law he did not need to enter a plea at the start of the trial, but Dujana told reporters he was victim of injustice.
The International Crisis Group has estimated JI, which is believed to want to create an Islamic state in South-east Asia and has previously been linked to Al-Qaeda, has about 900 members.
Controversial Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who has been accused of being the founder and spiritual leader of JI, was jailed for 30 months for conspiracy over the 2002 Bali bombings but was later cleared.
Abu Rusdan, another JI figure who admitted to being a caretaker leader, was jailed for three and a half year on charges of harbouring Bali bombers. He was released in late 2005.
Police are still hunting Noordin Top, a Malaysian national considered a mastermind and key financer of some of the attacks. About 85 per cent of Indonesia's more than 220 million people follow Islam. While most Muslims are moderate, the country has seen an emergence of an increasingly vocal militant minority.
Although there have been no major bomb attacks since 2005, police and some analysts say Indonesia still faces a considerable threat from Islamic militants. -- REUTERS
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Top Indon Islamic militant to go on trial 
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