WASHINGTON, March 29 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Abu Ali, an Arab American, to 30 years in prison for plotting to kill President George W. Bush and conspiring with the al Qaida terror network.

    U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee announced the sentence in Alexandria, Virginia, in the suburb of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.

    Ali, who was arrested in June 2003 when he was studying at a university in Saudi Arabia, was found guilty in November last year of nine charges, which included conspiracy to assassinate Bush, conspiring to support al Qaida and conspiracy to hijack aircraft. The minimum sentence of all the charges was 20 years in prison.

    Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for 25-year-old Ali, but the judge said a sentence of less than life in jail could be justified by the nature of the offense and the fact that Ali had not committed any acts of violence.

    But the 30-year-sentence would be followed by 30 years of supervised release, the judge said.

    While he was held in Saudi Arabia for 20 months, Ali made statements in which he admitted that he joined al Qaida and discussed with its leaders some terrorism plots, including the one to kill Bush.

    But after returning to the United States, he pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed he was forced to make up the confessions after being tortured in Saudi Arabia. Enditem