Semarang, Central Java – Twenty five men implicated in the highly publicized burning of churches in Temanggung, West Java, in early February made their first appearance in the Semarang District Court on Thursday.

The trial venue was moved to the provincial capital of Central Java for security reasons. The defendants have been divided into seven different groups, though the alleged ringleader, Syihabudin, will stand trial alone.

Syihabudin denied the prosecutor's indictment that alleged he was the provocateur of the riot on Feb. 8, in which a mob angered by a sentence handed down in a blasphemy trial attacked two churches and a Christian school. Nine people were injured in the ensuing violence.

Temanggung has long been a breeding ground for Islamic extremists and was one of the areas where early members of regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah were recruited.

In 2009, Temanggung Police killed Ibrohim during a raid. Ibrohim was a florist at the Marriott Hotel in Megakuningan, Jakarta, and was believed to have smuggled in the bomb used in the July 2009 terrorist attack.

In 2007, police arrested Temanggung local Mujaddid, an accomplice of key wanted terrorist Noordin M. Top, for his involvement in the sectarian conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi, in the late 1990s. (Antara/JG)