US: Jose Padilla, a US citizen held without charge as an enemy combatant for more than three years on suspicion of plotting a radioactive "dirty bomb" attack against America, has been charged instead with conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap.
US attorney general Alberto Gonzales said Mr Padilla had been transferred from defence department custody to a criminal court in Miami, Florida.
"The indictment alleges that Padilla travelled overseas to train as a terrorist with the intention of fighting a violent jihad," he said.
The attorney general declined to say why Mr Padilla was not being charged with plotting a "dirty bomb" attack and planning to blow up apartment buildings with natural gas.
A Brooklyn-born convert to Islam who was once part of a Chicago gang, Mr Padilla has been held for the past three years at a navy brig in South Carolina. The Bush administration has until now resisted his demand to be tried in a criminal court.
The administration's climbdown avoids a Supreme Court battle over how long a US citizen can be held without charge. It was due to present its arguments for holding him by next Monday.
When Mr Padilla was arrested at Chicago airport in May 2002, President Bush ordered that he was so dangerous he should be held incommunicado until the end of the war on terror.
The criminal indictment against Mr Padilla and four others unsealed yesterday says he was part of a US-based conspiracy that sent money, assets and recruits overseas "for the purpose of fighting violent jihad".
It says Mr Padilla travelled overseas to receive jihad training and to fight violent jihad from October 1993 to November 2001. If convicted on all charges, he could face life imprisonment.
Meanwhile, an Arab-American was convicted yesterday of joining al-Qaeda and plotting to assassinate Mr Bush.
The federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, rejected Ahmed Omar Abu Ali's claim that Saudi authorities whipped and tortured him to extract a false confession.
Abu Ali (24) could get life in prison on charges that include conspiracy to assassinate the president and providing support to al-Qaeda. A US citizen born to a Jordanian father and raised in Virginia, he told authorities shortly after his arrest in Saudi Arabia in June 2003 that he joined al-Qaeda and discussed various terrorist plots. - (Additional reporting by PA)