They were nabbed by Indonesia's anti-terror crack squad Detachment 88 during a raid in a rented house in Palembang, South Sumatra. The raid also uncovered 22 home-made bombs that were ready to use as well as cachets of explosive.

Indonesia's Attorney-General Hendarman Supanji said that Indonesian police have completed their investigation and submitted a dossier to the state prosecutors.

'We are currently in close discussions with the police on this case,' Mr Hendarman told The Straits Times in Jakarta, but declined to elaborate further.

The dossier contains key findings on the case, based on the interrogation of the suspects and witnesses, and evidence collected from the police raid.

A source close to the case said the authorities are most likely to base their charges on Clause 9 of the anti-terrorism law, which carries a maximum death penalty and a minimum three-year imprisonment.

Clause 9 targets anyone found to possess, keep, transport, hide explosive materials and other dangerous materials meant to be used to commit an act of terrorism. The amount of dangerous firearms and the extent of damage they could have inflicted would affect the penalty meted out, said the source.

In the case of the Palembang terror suspects, Indonesian national police chief Sutanto had previously said the bombs seized by police were even more deadly than those used in previous terror attacks. So, it is very likely that 35-year-old Fajar Taslim, also known as Mohamed Hassan, and his compatriots could face the firing squad.

'We will prepare our defence,' Mr Asludin Hatjadi, the lawyer for the 10 terror suspects, said. The charges are likely to be brought up in court in the next one to two months, he added.

If convicted, Fajar Taslim would be the first Singaporean to be charged with terror-related activities in Indonesia.

He is said to be a member of the Singapore chapter of the Jemaah Islamiah, headed by wanted fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari since 1999. Mas Selamat and his team, including Fajar Taslim, had allegedly planned to hijack a plane in Bangkok and crash it into Singapore's Changi airport in 2002.

Police also believe that Fajar Taslim, who was working as an English teacher in Palembang at the time of the arrest, had previously been trained in Afghanistan and met wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden several times.

But Mr Asludin claimed that Fajar Taslim, since coming to Indonesia, no longer has ties with international terror networks. 'Fajar came to Indonesia in 2001 and has lived here ever since and has become well-assimilated. He was married to an Indonesian and has two children,' he said.

'Fajar and the other nine have had no international network. This is a conclusion from the police interrogations they underwent.'

Since the October 2002 bombings in Bali that killed 202 people - most of whom were foreign tourists, Indonesia has been seen as taking a tough stance on terror.

Three men - Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron - were convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 over the bombings.

But their execution has been repeatedly delayed due to series of failed appeals and most recently for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ended in September.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the Attorney-General's office said Indonesia will announce on next Friday a date for their execution.

wahyudis@sph.com.sg