The family of Ahmed Abu Ali, the 23-year-old American citizen 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. The judge did acknowledge, however that 'at least some circumstantial evidence that Abu Ali has been tortured during interrogations with the knowledge of the United States' in court papers written last December.

Ali also claims that an American diplomat threatened to be send him to the infamous American prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba if he didn't cooperate with his interrogators.

The government contends that Ali was involved in a plot to kill the president either by shooting him at close range or by detonating a car bomb nearby. He is also accused of attempting to start an al-Qaeda cell in the United States.

One of his alleged coconspirators was killed by Saudi authorities during a shootout in Riyadh in September 2003 according to papers filed by the government.

Mr. Ali remains in custody pending a decision by the judge as to whether or not to grant him bail.