A federal grand jury has indicted Jose Padilla, a US citizen suspected of plotting a "dirty bomb" attack in the United States, for conspiring to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas and providing material support to terrorists abroad.

Upon a directive of the president, Padilla was "no longer being detained by the Department of Defense as an enemy combatant," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The Pentagon would transfer the custody of Padilla to the Justice Department, he said.

The 11-count indictment was handed up last Thursday by a federal grand jury in the US District Court in Miami, Florida, and was unsealed Tuesday.

The case of Padilla would go to trial in September of 2006, and if convicted, he would face jail terms, Gonzales said.

"The defendants, along with other individuals, operated and participated in a North American support cell that sent money, physical assets and mujahideen recruits to overseas conflicts for the purposes of fighting a violent jihad," the indictment said.

The charges against him and four others however did not include the administration's earlier allegation that he planned to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" device in the United States.

Padilla, a former gang member in Chicago and Muslim convert, was arrested in 2002 after returning from Pakistan and has been held under Defense Department custody in a South Carolina military brig for three years as an "enemy combatant."

The indictment alleged Padilla traveled overseas "to train as a terrorist with the intention of fighting a violent jihad," said Gonzales, declining to comment on why the allegations involving plotting "dirty bomb" attacks in the United States were not included in the indictment.

Source: Xinhua