ALEXANDRIA (USA), Feb 6: A US federal court here on Wednesday rejected requests from lawyers for “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh that he be released from custody ahead of trial, on the grounds he is a “danger to society”.

“He poses a danger for the community,” said Judge Weldon Sewell of the 20-year-old convert to Islam. “If released, he would probably disappear.”

Defense attorneys for the US-born Walker, who was captured after a prison raid in northern Afghanistan and held aboard a US destroyer in the Arabian Sea until his transfer to Virginia, sought to have Walker released to the custody of his father until his trial in federal court.

Walker was on Tuesday indicted by a 12-member federal grand jury on 10 counts including conspiracy to murder US citizens, Attorney General John Ashcroft said. If convicted he faces multiple life sentences in prison.

The young man has told investigators that he was studying at a madressa in Yemen before travelling to Pakistan, where he became enamoured with the philosophies espoused by the Taliban.

He spent several weeks in an Al Qaeda training camp learning to use weapons and explosives, even meeting Osama bin Laden on one occasion, before joining the ranks of the Taliban.—AFP