Lawyers for the radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of the Bali bombers, are seeking to overturn his 2011 conviction on terror charges.

They are applying today in South Jakarta's District Court for a judicial review of his conviction.

But Bashir will not be in court for today's hearing — he is locked up off the Java coast, on Kembangan Island.

His lawyers are expected to argue that he was wrongfully arrested over the funding of a terrorist training camp in Aceh.

It is a desperate legal effort four years after his conviction.

They are also arguing that the case be moved to a court in Cilicap, closer to his prison.

Sidney Jones, the director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, said he doubted that the court would accept the application.

She said that Bashir was seen as an elder statesman amongst extremists, but his days of real influence were gone.

"The fact that he played such an instrumental role in the Bali bombing has distorted his role today," Ms Jones said.

"There are many people that are far more dangerous than he is."

Those said to be more dangerous include people like Bahrun Naim, the Indonesian fighting with Islamic State in Syria.

Last year he tried to recruit Indonesians to undertake attacks in Central Java.

Yesterday, Naim posted a message online about the Paris attacks.

"It was done in a swift and timely manner. It was an inspiring attack in the midst of Western concern about the number of Muslims migrating to Europe," the message read.

Indonesia worried over Paris attacks

Indonesia's anti-terror agency, the BNPT, is worried about the local impact of the Paris attacks.

"The implication is that the groups that think of themselves as the followers of ISIS somehow [have their spirit invigorated] to spread what they understand to be the ideology of ISIS," said BNPT spokesman Irfan Idris.

"But to conduct a physical attack, in my opinion, they're not as brave as those in France. But their spirit has been renewed by this somewhat."

Ms Jones added that it was a safe bet that there were around 200 Indonesians fighting with Islamic State in Indonesia.

Returning fighters are not automatically locked up in Indonesia, Mr Idris said.

"We embrace them and conduct soft approach to them," he said.

"We identify where they are so they won't commit any actions similar to what Afghan fighters did after they returned from the war with Soviet, who then did the bombing in Bali."

Jakarta currently has a more visible security presence this week around embassies in Jakarta, in time for the arrival of four Australian government ministers in the country for Australia-Indonesia Trade Week.