Jakarta – An Indonesian court on Monday rejected a demand that prosecutors free Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir after lawyers for the alleged head of the militant Jemaah Islamiah group argued his detention was illegal.

Bashir was arrested in October on suspicion of links to church bombings in 2000 and a plot to kill President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

But his lawyers say such references were missing when police last month handed him to prosecutors and said he had been charged with treason. They have not given details of the charges.

"The submission was declined by the court," Bashir lawyer Mahendradatta said, adding the case was thrown out because the cleric's legal team made a technical mistake in filing the case.

Prosecutors, who are detaining Bashir ahead of his trial, which could begin in weeks, had said they were permitted under Indonesian law to draw up an indictment that could differ from accusations originally made by police.

Bashir denies any wrongdoing as well as any knowledge of Jemaah Islamiah, which seeks to create a pan-Islamic nation in Southeast Asia, regional officials and intelligence sources say.

Indonesian police have blamed it for the October 12 bomb attack on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Police have linked Bashir to the attacks but have not charged him over the atrocity.