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Court delays Padilla transfer from brigFrom CNN Justice Producer Terry Frieden  Jose Padilla has been held since May 2002 when he returned to the United States from Pakistan. RELATED
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSWASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal appeals court on Wednesday delayed the transfer of accused terrorist Jose Padilla from a military brig to face trial in Miami. Padilla, a 35-year-old U.S. citizen, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Florida. He will remain in the Navy brig in South Carolina for at least two weeks under a two-page order issued by the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. The development surprised top Justice Department officials. But the three-judge panel said it needs to know whether it should set aside a September opinion that upheld Padilla's military detention before returning him to civilian authorities. The court said it wants to hear arguments on whether the opinion was to be vacated "as a consequence of the transfer." The judges pointed out that the facts alleged by the government "warranting" Padilla's military detention differed from the charges in the indictment. The government was ordered to reply by December 9, and Padilla's lawyers have a deadline of December 16 to respond -- the same date the government is also due to respond to Padilla's latest appeal to the Supreme Court. "We're disappointed that Mr. Padilla's transfer to the civilian justice system has been delayed," said Padilla defense attorney Jonathan Freiman, who argued Padilla's case before a South Carolina judge earlier this year. "The case is pending in the Supreme Court, and we think the Supreme Court should decide whether to address the question of the president's power to detain American citizens seized in a civilian setting in the United States indefinitely and without charges." The 4th Circuit must rule on the transfer to clear the way for U.S. marshals to take Padilla from the brig to Miami. "We intend to comply with the 4th Circuit Court's order," the Justice Department said in a brief statement. Officials declined further comment. The indictment charges Padilla with conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people in a foreign country, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and providing material support to terrorists. Padilla was added as a defendant to an existing case against four other men, accusing them of forming a "North American support cell" of a global "violent jihad" movement. Padilla specifically was accused of little more than attending al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in 1999 and 2000. Prior to the criminal charges, Padilla had been designated an enemy combatant and held in military custody without charges for nearly three and half years. Padilla, who has served two criminal sentences in the United States and lived abroad, was arrested in Chicago in May 2002 by the FBI and jailed as a material witness in the investigation into the September 11, 2001, terrorists attacks. One month later, President Bush designated him an "enemy combatant" for posing "a continuing, present and grave danger to the national security of the United States." The attorney general at the time alleged that Padilla had plotted to blow up a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the United States. The indictment does not include allegations related to a dirty bomb plot or any reference to allegations publicly stated last year that Padilla also plotted to blow up apartment buildings with natural gas lines. The Court of Appeals had jurisdiction over Padilla's case because the government had appealed the ruling of a South Carolina federal judge who ruled his continued detention unconstitutional and said he must be charged or released. The appeals court overruled U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd, a Bush appointee who ruled that the president does have the legal authority to declare enemy combatants and hold them indefinitely in military custody. CNN's Phil Hirschkorn contributed to this report. 
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