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Federal grand jury indicts man with suspected 9/11 links

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- An Indonesian man with suspected links to some of the September 11 hijackers was indicted on document fraud charges Thursday by a federal grand jury.

Agus Budiman, whom authorities claim was acquainted with terrorist ringleader Mohammad Atta, faces one count of conspiracy to commit identification document fraud and one count of unlawful production of identification documents. He is not charged in connection with any terrorist acts.

Budiman, 31, is scheduled to be arraigned on the two counts March 4 before a magistrate judge in Alexandria.

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He is accused of trying to help an "unindicted co-conspirator," believed to be Mohammad Bin Nasser Belfas, to obtain a Virginia state identification card.

A government document has identified Belfas as an associate of Osama bin Laden. Authorities have launched an international search for Belfas.

Federal prosecutors claim Budiman helped Atta move into an apartment when the two lived in Hamburg, Germany. Lawyers for Budiman say their client had seen Atta but barely knew him, and had never discussed matters of substance with him.

Defense attorneys contend it was Belfas who told Atta and suspected airline hijacker Ziad Samir Jarrah to use Budiman's address while in the United States.

The FBI says Jarrah was the pilot of the hijacked jet that crashed in Pennsylvania. Authorities say Jarrah and Ramzi Binalshibh, who was believed to be part of the hijacking plot but was denied entrance to the United States, used Budiman's address on U.S. visa applications.

Binalshibh also remains at large.