JAKARTA (AFP) - Indonesian prosecutors have charged hardline Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir with involvement in the nightclub bombings in the resort island of Bali which killed 202 people, a prosecutor said.
"The Bali bombing is among the charges that we have included in Mr. Bashir's indictment and he has been charged with article 187 (of) the criminal code for that section," Kuntadi, one of the state prosecutors handling Bashir's upcoming terror trial, told AFP.
Bashir, alleged to be the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah group, could face 20 years to life imprisonment for involvement in "a sinister conspiracy" which endangers or costs the lives of others, according to the article.
Prosecutors on Friday said they had formally charged Bashir with involvement in last year's bombing at Jakarta's JW Marriott hotel in which 12 people died but had not charged him over the 2002 Bali blasts.
However, Kuntadi said that while the Marriott charges are under tough new anti-terror laws, the charges in relation to Bali come under the criminal code. A court ruling in August struck down the retroactive use of the anti-terror legislation.
Prosecutors linked Bashir with the Bali bombing by detailing in the indictment an August 2002 conversation he had with Bali bomber Amrozi in which he had asked the cleric's permission to "hold an event in Bali."
Bashir allegedly replied: "It is up to all of you since you are the ones who know the situation in the field."
On receiving Bashir's reply, Amrozi -- on death row for his role in the bombing -- then planned and executed the bombings with his accomplices, the indictment alleges.
Australian and Indonesian authorities, who have worked together on investigations into the bombings, have long argued that Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah was responsible for the Bali bombings and the attack on the Marriott.
Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said Saturday that charges against Bashir related to a number of attacks, including the Bali bombings in which 88 Australians died.
"We've been advised by our liaison office in Jakarta that Abu Bakar Bashir has been charged with both the Bali bombings and also the Marriott bombings and also in respect of his involvement in training camps in the Philippines with Jemaah Islamiyah," Keelty told reporters.
Keelty said Bashir was charged under two different laws to ensure the charges stick if he mounts a constitutional challenge.
He said Bashir was the central figure responsible for training terrorists responsible for the Bali attacks on October 12, 2002, and he was also behind the failed attempt to bomb Australia's High Commission in Singapore in 2001.
"He has been the person, the main figure, as we understand it, behind the training given to terrorists and also giving the imprimatur for those bombings," he said.
Keelty said after the Singapore attack was thwarted, Bashir was part of a conspiracy that decided to concentrate on "soft" targets, which he said resulted in the Bali bombing.
More than 30 people have been sentenced over the Bali bombing attacks and three key bombers, including Amrozi, have been sentenced to death.