WASHINGTON -- A man who once lived in South Florida and who has been referred to as the "dirty bomb suspect," is now facing federal charges.

Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held for three years as an enemy combatant suspected of plotting a dirty bomb attack, has been indicted on charges that he conspired to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas.

A federal grand jury in Miami returned the indictment against Padilla and four others. While the charges allege Padilla was part of a U.S.-based terrorism conspiracy, they do not include the government's earlier allegations that he planned to carry out attacks in America.

"The indictment alleges that Padilla traveled overseas to train as a terrorist with the intention of fighting a violent jihad," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a news conference in Washington. Gonzales declined to comment on why none of the allegations involving attacks in America were included in the indictment.

Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Muslim convert, has been held as an "enemy combatant" in Department of Defense custody for more than three years. President George W. Bush's administration had resisted calls to charge and try him in civilian courts.

With the indictment, Padilla will be transferred from military custody to the Department of Justice. Gonzales said the case would go to trial in September 2006. Padilla faces life in prison if convicted on the charges.

The indictment avoids a Supreme Court showdown over how long the government could hold a U.S. citizen without charges. The high court had been asked to decide when and for how long the government can jail Americans in military prisons.

Padilla's lawyers had asked justices to review his case last month, and the Bush administration was facing a deadline next Monday for filing its legal arguments.

"The 'evidence' the government has offered against Padilla over the past three years consists of double and triple hearsay from secret witnesses, along with information allegedly obtained from Padilla himself during his two years of incommunicado interrogation," his lawyers said in their earlier appeal.

The Bush administration has said Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, sought to blow up hotels and apartment buildings in the United States and planned an attack with a "dirty bomb" radiological device.

Padilla was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in 2002 after returning from Pakistan. The federal government has said members of al-Qaida trained him in weapons and explosives. One week earlier, Padilla's brother was arrested in Broward County for allegedly stabbing a Sunrise, Fla., teen.

Although the Department of Justice has said that Padilla was readying attacks in the U.S., the charges against him and four others allege they were part of a conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country and provide material support to terrorists abroad.

Adham Amin Hassoun, Mohammed Hesham Youssef, Kifah Wael Jayyousi and Kassem Daher were also named in the indictment. Hassoun was indicted on eight additional charges, including perjury, obstruction of justice and illegal firearm possession.

Padilla's South Florida Connection

Hassoun, a Palestinian computer programmer who moved to Sunrise in 1989, was arrested in June 2002 for allegedly overstaying his student visa. Prosecutors previously described him as a former associate of Padilla.

Hassoun allegedly raised money on the Internet for a radical group that opposed Israel. He reportedly met Padilla at a mosque in Pembroke Pines, Fla., in the early 1990s after Padilla was released from prison for shooting a motorist.

Hassoun is believed to have mentored Padilla while he studied Islam and worked at a Taco Bell in Davie, Fla.

Local 10 reporter Yvonna Nava went to the home of Padilla's mother, Estela Ortega-Lebron, in Plantation to try to get a comment Tuesday.

Ortega-Lebron did not answer the door or the phone. A cousin who was at the Lake Gardens apartment in the 4700 Northwest 10 Court ducked away from Local 10's camera and would not respond to questions.

Padilla was once listed on the lease of the apartment in Plantation that he apparently shared with his mother after he and his half-brother moved to South Florida from Chicago in 1989.

The only person willing to make a comment on Padilla's case was Ortega-Lebron's lawyer in New York who commented by phone that, "This now gives him a chance to defend himself."

Padilla has been held at a Navy brig in South Carolina. He will be transferred to a federal detention facility in Miami.