Associated Press American John Walker Lindh is pictured in this undated photo obtained last Tuesday from a religious school where he studied for five months in Bannu, Pakistan. Lindh, who fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan, began his journey home from the war in Afghanistan on Tuesday to face charges that he conspired with Islamic radicals to kill fellow countrymen.

WASHINGTON - John Walker Lindh, the American captured as a Taliban soldier, was sent to the United States aboard a military plane and under high security to face charges he conspired with terrorists to kill fellow U.S. citizens.

"He will now have his day in court, and he will be judged impartially and fairly," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told a press conference.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon held off on sending more al-Qaida and Taliban figures from Afghanistan to a U.S. naval base on Cuba for security reasons, a senior defense official said yesterday on condition of anonymity.

With 158 there now, the makeshift prison is reaching capacity, and officials fear it might be easier for the captives to create problems if they were doubled up in cells while more are being built, he said.

He said several dozen more could be ready in a day or so, but it was unclear when the transfers would resume.

In another development, six anti-Taliban militiamen have been brought to Walter Reed Army Medical Center here for treatment of injuries received when an American bomb went astray last month, another defense official said yesterday, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Lindh was expected to arrive late yesterday in suburban Washington, where he was expected to make an initial appearance today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

One U.S. official familiar with the process, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lindh would be handed over to U.S. marshals after the military cargo plane lands, then be fingerprinted. Marshals were expected to take Lindh to a federal detention center and transport him today to his court appearance.

Meanwhile, Lindh's parents and attorney James Brosnhan were headed east from San Francisco, said a source familiar with the situation. This person, who spoke on grounds of anonymity, said it wasn't known whether they would see Lindh.

Lindh was taken off the USS Bataan warship in the Arabian Sea by helicopter and transferred to another military plane at the airport at the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials said.

The Pentagon officially was not confirming the transfer, saying it would be dangerous to release any information about his movements. Journalists were kept away from the area.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that Lindh was restrained during the flight. "When people are moved, they are restrained," Rumsfeld said. "That is true in prisons across the globe. It is not anything new. It is because in transit, movement from one place to another, is the place where bad things happen."

The 20-year-old Californian converted to Islam four years ago and took up the cause of Muslim radicals, fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan and meeting with Osama bin Laden at an al-Qaida terrorist training camp, his federal indictment says.

Held by the military since shortly after his capture in Afghanistan, Lindh was turned over to the U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday and will not be sent to the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, base where other prisoners from the Afghan conflict are being held.

Rumsfeld said Lindh would be brought into the federal courts' Northern District of Virginia, which covers the Pentagon and most of Washington's Virginia suburbs.

Lindh was coming to the United States because he is an American. President Bush's order allowing terrorism suspects to be tried by military tribunals does not apply to U.S. citizens.

A criminal complaint against Lindh alleges he trained at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan. He was captured in November in the siege of Kunduz and survived a prison uprising near Mazar-e-Sharif.

The conspiracy charge against him can carry a life sentence.

Meanwhile, the Afghan fighters brought to the states for treatment were among dozens of casualties in a "friendly fire" incident Dec. 5 near Kandahar.

Three American soldiers and six Afghans were killed and 19 Americans were wounded in the air strike when an Air Force B-52 dropped a 2,000-pound satellite-guided bomb near their position north of Kandahar, officials said at the time.