Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Thursday denied again being the spiritual leader of a shadowy militant Muslim network, telling an Indonesian court trying him for treason that he had never plotted bombings or the assassination of the country's president.

Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir (C) gestures to a photographer as he leaves a Jakarta courtroom for a break after delivering his final defense on Aug 21, 2003. Bashir dismissed the treason charge directed at him on Thursday, claiming he had no knowledge of the activities of a violent militant network.  [Reuters]

Prosecutors have charged Bashir with treason for trying to overthrow the government by using Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the Southeast Asian network accused of carrying out last October's Bali blasts and now the prime suspect in this month's car bomb attack at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.

Bashir is also charged with approving church bombings across the world's most populous Muslim nation in 2000 which killed 19 people, and has been linked to an aborted plot to kill President Megawati Sukarnoputri when she was vice president.

The preacher said none of the testimony against him had been credible.

I am not JI's leader and I never know what JI does," he said, reading out a written defense statement.

"None of my actions in Malaysia and Indonesia had treason purposes and were aimed at establishing an Islamic state in Indonesia," he said.

"I have no business with the bombings and there has never been any intention in my heart to kill Megawati," he said.

The prosecution earlier this month urged the Central Jakarta court to sentence Bashir to 15 years in jail for treason.

Bashir, 65, faces a maximum of life in jail, although political analysts said 15 years would itself amount effectively to a life sentence considering Bashir's age and bouts of poor health.

The cleric has repeatedly denied the charges and insisted JI -- seen as the Southeast Asian arm of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network -- does not exist. Police have linked the cleric to the Bali bombings, which killed 202 mainly foreign holidaymakers, but he has not been charged.

Key suspects on trial over the Bali blasts face the death penalty.

In the wake of the August 5 blast at the Marriott, Western governments have warned of more attacks in Indonesia.

A suicide bomber killed 12 people and wounded 150 when he drove a car loaded with explosives similar to those used in the Bali attacks up to the lobby of the U.S.-run hotel.

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