Taliban member charged in U.S. court

WASHINGTON – A Russian member of the Taliban who was captured by U.S. forces five years ago in eastern Afghanistan was named Tuesday in an indictment charging him with coordinating attacks on U.S. troops and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Irek Ilgiz Hamidullin appeared in federal court in Richmond, Va., in a case that expands the Obama administration’s record of bringing terrorism suspects into civilian courts, not military tribunals.

His case marks the first time a military detainee from Afghanistan has been brought to the United States to stand trial. It amplifies White House determination to try terrorism cases in civilian courts, defying Republican demands to use a military commission at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan turned Hamidullin over to the FBI on Monday, and agents then flew him to Virginia.

Hamidullin served as a Soviet army tank commander in Afghanistan against U.S.-backed mujahedeen fighters in the 1980s, according to the indictment. The Soviet forces withdrew in defeat in 1989.

U.S. officials say Hamidullin stayed behind and later became a senior Taliban commander who helped orchestrate attacks on U.S. forces and allies in Afghanistan after the American-led invasion in 2001.