US requests to hold alleged plotter in jail

The family of Ahmed Abu Ali citizen of, American accused of plotting the assassination of President Bush says they blame the United States government for his alleged detention and torture in a Saudi prison and that they will pursue legal action against the United States government. Mr. Ali’s father Omar told the Associated Press, ‘The Saudi government are slaves of the Americans’ and says that his son was really under American control while in a Saudi prison.

U.S. District Court Judge John Bates indicated that he would set up a two week schedule for more court papers to be filed by both sides. Federal officials want any lawsuit by Mr. Ali and his family to be dismissed and they deny that any ‘torture’ took place in the Saudi prison. .S. prosecutors say a man charged with supporting al-Qaida and plotting to kill President Bush should be kept in jail until his trial.

Attorneys filed their motion ahead of a detention hearing next week for 23-year-old Ahmed Omar Abu Ali. Lead prosecutor Paul McNulty says the defendant, an American citizen, poses a “grave danger” to the nation. The indictment against Mr. Abu Ali says he planned to kill Mr. Bush either by shooting him or detonating a car bomb. It says the defendant discussed the plot with several co-conspirators in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi authorities arrested Mr. Abu Ali in June 2003 and held him for 20 months before returning him to U.S. custody this week. According to the most recent government filings in the case against Ahmed Omar Abu Ali (search) that advocate his pretrial detention, the Virginia resident discussed a plot to kill the president with a member of Al Qaeda who was later killed in a shootout with Saudi law enforcement around September 2003.

Abu Ali was charged Tuesday with the alleged plot, which prosecutors said was hatched while he studied in Saudi Arabia in 2002 and 2003. His detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. The detainee’s family also said Thursday they want to pursue a lawsuit accusing the administration of being behind their son’s imprisonment and alleged torture in a Saudi prison.