Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, center, a key suspect of the Bali bombing, is escorted by police officers upon arrival for his trial in Denpasar

DENPASAR, Indonesia, May 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The first Bali bombing suspect went on trial Monday, May 12, accused of helping to stage the deadly attack on Western holidaymakers.

Amrozi, a village mechanic, may face a firing squad if convicted by a court in the Indonesian resort island of the worst terrorist attack since September 11, 2001, in the United States, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

The bombing of two crowded Bali nightspots last October 12 killed 202 people from 21 countries.

Investigators have said the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, which is thought linked to Al-Qaeda, staged the blasts and a string of others as part of a campaign to topple governments and establish a Southeast Asian Islamic state.

Amrozi, 40, the first suspect to be arrested, was dubbed the "laughing bomber" for a lighthearted appearance before the media last November.

Now he is "prepared for the worst. We told him that the maximum sentence is death," his chief lawyer, Wirawan Adnan, told reporters.

Amrozi appeared tense and fidgety as prosecutors read a 33-page indictment.

It described in chilling detail how Amrozi and 12 others, including two of his brothers, allegedly staged the bombings as a declaration of war against the United States and its allies.

The blasts "resulted in terror on a wide scale" and destroyed 424 buildings including the two targeted nightspots -- Paddy's Bar and the Sari Club -- in the Kuta tourist district.

Police have said Amrozi's motive was to kill as many Americans as possible. His only regret, they say, is that Australians and not Americans were the main victims. A total of 88 Australians died.

Hundreds of police, some armed, guarded the courthouse and a total of 3,000 are on duty island-wide. Barbed-wire barricades sealed off the street amid fears of an angry public backlash.

"Prosecute and sentence to death traitors to the state of Indonesia, including the Bali bombers," read one billboard in the island, whose tourism-based economy was devastated. Some 38 Indonesians were among the dead.

The trial is important for Indonesia and "important for the world," said Bali police chief I Made Mangku Pastika, who led the huge multinational investigation that has netted 33 suspects.

The bombings were a wake-up call for the world's largest Muslim-populated nation, which had been criticized previously for failing to act against terror threats.

The indictment says Amrozi attended several planning sessions for the Bali bombing, at one of which "a big project of declaring war against the United States of America" was discussed.

In September, it says, Amrozi bought one tone of potassium chloride and other chemicals used to build the van bomb detonated outside the Sari Club. He sent the consignment to Bali by bus.

On October 5 Amrozi is said to have driven the van to Bali. At a house in Denpasar two days later, the bombs were assembled.

On the fatal night a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-stuffed vest inside Paddy's Bar. That blast drove customers into the street, where they caught the full force of the van bomb detonated outside the nearby Sari Club 29 seconds later.

The van bomb was detonated by another man, who also died in the blast.

Defense lawyer Adnan told the court the indictment was obscure "because it does not determine whether the defendant is a planner or an executor."

Adnan said attending meetings as a spectator did not qualify Amrozi as a planner, nor did the purchase of chemicals and shipping them to Bali.

"The people of Bali and the people of Indonesia and the world community demand justice but we should not forget that the defendant also has the right to justice," he said.

The trial was adjourned until May 19.

Australian Peter Hughes, who is still bandaged from the blast, watched the hearing. He said he earlier felt angry.

"But I saw fear in his (Amrozi's) eyes today and I felt somehow relieved. He realizes what he is into."

Bali Survivors, Families To Sue Financiers Of Bomb Attack

Meanwhile, Australian families of victims and survivors of the Bali bombings that claimed 88 Australian lives have joined a U.S.-led class action lawsuit against the financial backers of terrorism, their lawyers said Monday.

The civil action, to mirror a similar suit brought by the victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, is being coordinated by U.S. law firm Suggs, Kelly and Middleton.

"I think it's very important as a first response by a legal system in holding accountable the specific bombers and those complicit in the bombing," a spokesman for the firm, Mike Hourigan, said.