ALEXANDRIA, Virginia: A Virginia man convicted of plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush in 2003 was re-sentenced to life in prison on Monday. Originally given a 30-year prison term, a higher court ruled the punishment was too lenient and sent the case back for re-sentencing. Prosecutors said the 28-year-old Ahmed Omar Abu Ali joined Al-Qaeda while studying in Saudi Arabia in 2002. It was there that he allegedly met with top Al-Qaeda leaders and discussed establishing a sleeper cell in the US.

Saudi authorities detained Abu Ali in 2003 in a crackdown on militants and jailed him for 20 months before extraditing him to the United States.

The US-born Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was convicted here in 2005 of conspiring with the terrorist group, but prosecutors offered no evidence to indicate he ever took steps to follow through. They did say, however, that Abu Ali discussed flying a hijacked plane into targets on the US East Coast.

An appellate court, however, ruled last year the 30-year sentence was unjustified, writing: “The defendant sought to destabilize our government and to shake it to its core. To this day, he wishes he had succeeded.”

US District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said on Monday he increased Abu Ali’s sentence to a life term because of his refusal to renounce terrorism and the risk he would pose to the public if released.

“There’s no way to know what his mental state would be after 30 years of solitary confinement,” Lee said. In a brief statement to the court Monday, Abu Ali said Judge Lee would have to appear one day before a divine tribunal. Abu Ali said that if the judge was comfortable with such a prospect, he could impose any sentence he desired.

Before his sentence was announced, Abu Ali released a statement that may not have put him in good standing with the judge: “I would like to remind you that you too will appear before the divine tribunal with me and everyone else,” he said in a brief statement to Judge Lee. “That day there will be no lawyers… If you are comfortable with that, you can decree what you will.”

Defense lawyer Joshua Dratel said he will appeal the sentence, and told reporters he hoped that Abu Ali’s statements did not persuade the judge to impose a life sentence.

David Laufman, who as an assistant US attorney prosecuted Abu Ali in 2005 and is now in private practice, questioned whether Abu Ali talked himself into a life sentence at the hearing Monday.

“Abu Ali’s utter refusal to express even a scintilla of remorse for his conduct or a repudiation of his association with Al-Qaeda clearly contributed to the court’s determination,” Laufman said. “What did come out today was that this is a hard-core jihadist.”

His parents attended Monday’s sentencing but Abu Ali’s father, Omar, declined comment after Monday’s re-sentencing.