Possible Bomb Plot Ringleader Sought : Investigation: Authorities say Mahmud Abouhalima, a former chauffeur for militant Egyptian cleric, has fled to Pakistan. Three people are indicted.

Investigators said Wednesday that they believe the possible mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing is a 33-year-old former chauffeur and bodyguard for Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, a militant Egyptian cleric, and that the suspect has fled to Pakistan.

Sources familiar with the investigation said Mahmud Abouhalima, the man they are seeking, was “associated” on the day of the bombing with Mohammed A. Salameh, the 25-year-old Palestinian-born man who rented the van that allegedly delivered the explosive device as well as the storage shed where its highly volatile ingredients were mixed.

The focus on Abouhalima, who was born in Egypt and who reportedly has German citizenship, came as formal indictments were returned against three people already being held in the case. However, investigators said the case is still unfolding and others besides Abouhalima may prove equally central to the inquiry.

The sources said they had a “high degree of confidence” that Abouhalima was involved in the bombing. If he is caught, they said, officials would be prepared to seek his extradition from Pakistan under a treaty between that country and the United States.

They said Abouhalima is one of three people they are seeking who left the United States after Salameh’s arrest on March 4. The other two were not immediately identified.

“We’re looking for three more people, but Abouhalima is the guy we really want because possibly he’s the mastermind,” a key investigator told The Times. But he declined to reveal why authorities believe that Abouhalima may have played such a role.

“The prevailing opinion is that the three left (New York’s) John F. Kennedy Airport and we believe flew to South Africa and possibly on to Germany en route to Pakistan,” a source said.

Authorities said it appeared that Abouhalima lived for a time in Brooklyn and worked as a taxi driver before moving to Jersey City, N.J.--where Salameh resided.

Former neighbors in Brooklyn described Abouhalima as “a militant sort of guy” who often wore military fatigues and army boots.

Although Abouhalima has ties to Abdul Rahman, authorities said they have found no evidence to date linking the blind cleric to the explosion. Abdul Rahman has not been accused in the blast and has condemned it.

A source familiar with the investigation said Abouhalima has served as a bodyguard and a chauffeur for the sheik. The formal indictments against Salameh and Nidal Ayyad, a 25-year-old Kuwaiti-born Palestinian who is a chemical engineer, charged both men with killing six people in the bombing of the trade center on Feb. 26. More than 1,000 people were injured when the bomb was detonated in the complex’s basement garage.

At the same time, lesser charges were filed Wednesday against Ibrahim A. Elgabrowny, a 42-year-old housing contractor who tried to block federal agents from searching his Brooklyn apartment.

The three indictments were announced at a crowded news conference by U.S. Atty. Roger S. Hayes. He pledged an all-out effort to find those still at large.

“Let those who were associated with this shameless enterprise, but who are yet unapprehended, know their time has come,” Hayes said. “Of this, I am abidingly certain.”

The single paragraph indictment charged Salameh and Ayyad “did damage and destroy by means of fire and an explosive a building used in interstate and foreign commerce . . . and death did result.”

Hayes said that if convicted, both defendants could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

Hayes said the indictments showed that “the United States of America, working with its city and state partners . . . will move to prosecute and ultimately punish those whose cowardly acts caused this destruction.”

Elgabrowny, the president of a Brooklyn mosque where Abdul Rahman preached, was charged with one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of assaulting federal officers, two counts of possessing fraudulent passports and one count of obstructing the execution of a search warrant.

If convicted on all counts, Elgabrowny could receive a maximum punishment of 17 years in prison.

Court papers filed by prosecutors said the New York driver’s license used by Salameh to rent the van bore Elgabrowny’s home address in Brooklyn.

Elgabrowny is a cousin of a unifying figure in the case--El Sayyid A. Nosair--who was charged with assassinating Rabbi Meir Kahane just after the founder of the militant Jewish Defense League finished speaking at a Manhattan hotel in 1990. Nosair was acquitted of the murder but convicted on lesser charges in the case. He is serving a sentence of up to 22 years at New York’s Attica State Prison.

Nosair has not been charged in connection with the bombing.

Elgabrowny, who is a cousin of Nosair, headed his defense committee.

“He did everything” to help defend Nosair, recalled William Kunstler, the lawyer who represented Nosair. “He arranged transportation. He interviewed witnesses. He provided security, arranged demonstrations, brought people to court. He was a whirlwind running that committee.”

Both Salameh and Ayyad have visited Nosair in prison, according to authorities. A spokesman for Kahane Chai, an organization dedicated to continuing the work of the slain rabbi, said Wednesday that Abouhalima appears in pictures of demonstrations that Kahane supporters photographed.

Michael Guzofsky, the Kahane Chai spokesman, said Abouhalima--who he described as tall and red-haired with a full red beard--was photographed at Nosair’s bail hearing holding a sign proclaiming: “Faith in Allah Free Nosair.”

Guzofsky said Abouhalima also appeared at a demonstration outside the home of the judge in the case. He added that someone fitting Abouhalima’s description drove Abdul Rahman from a deportation hearing in January.

Immigration officials believe that Abdul Rahman is living in the United States illegally and his status has been the subject of a long and bitter fight. In a decision made public Wednesday, an immigration judge ruled that the militant cleric can be deported.

But the sheik’s lawyer, Barbara Nelson, said she would contest the deportation ruling by Judge Daniel Meisner of the Executive Office of Immigration Review. In the past, appeals of such orders have effectively delayed deportation for years as cases travel through the federal court system.

Abdul Rahman is currently visiting a home in West Covina, Calif.

Last March, the government rescinded Abdul Rahman’s green card after he failed to respond to formal Immigration and Naturalization Service allegations that he did not disclose pertinent facts on his residence application.

INS officials said he did not reveal he is a polygamist and that he was convicted and sentenced for falsifying a check in Egypt in 1987. The INS said both are grounds for exclusion from the country.

M. T. Mehdi, secretary general of the National Council on Islamic Affairs, and a spokesman for the sheik, charged Wednesday that the FBI is trying to create an aura of distrust around Abdul Rahman so that he can be deported.

“It’s a witch hunt for political reasons,” Mehdi charged. “One is the fear in Egypt that this man can overturn the government of Egypt.”

Investigators have not discounted the possibility that Abouhalima may have played some role in the Kahane case. Potential links between Kahane’s murder and the trade center bombing are being scrutinized by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

“We’re looking at all the associations in regard to the bombing case,” an investigator said.

Times staff writers Robert L. Jackson, Elizabeth Shogren, Gebe Martinez, William C. Rempel and Jim Mann contributed to this story.