MANILA - State prosecutors in the Philippines said today they have filed criminal charges in court against fugitive Indonesian Islamic militant Riduan Isamudin ( photo ) and a Malaysian man detained in Singapore.

The criminal indictment accuses Isamudin, also known as Hambali, and Faiz bin Abu Bakar Bafana of giving money to local Muslim militants to procure explosives used in a series of Manila bombings nearly two years ago that left 22 people dead.

Southeast Asian intelligence officials describe Hambali as the operations chief of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a militant Islamic network that operates across the region and is suspected of being behind the Oct 12 blast in Bali, Indonesia that killed over 190 people.

They say JI is allied to the al Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, the main suspect in the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States last year.

Faiz was among a group of suspected JI militants who have been rounded up by Singapore in connection with an alleged plot to bomb the US embassy and other targets in the city-state.