Washington ? Federal prosecutors Tuesday unveiled sweeping terrorism charges against a Virginia man, accusing him of plotting to assassinate President Bush and trying to establish an al-Qaida cell in the United States.

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, conspired with others in Saudi Arabia to either shoot Bush on the street or kill him with a car bomb, prosecutors said. The six-count indictment, unsealed Tuesday, says Abu Ali sought to become “a planner of terrorist operations” in the same vein as leading al-Qaida figures associated with the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

A U.S. citizen who grew up in Falls Church, Va., Abu Ali had been detained in a Saudi prison for 20 months before being flown back to the United States Monday. His case became highly visible last summer when his parents filed a lawsuit, alleging that the U.S. government had arranged for him to be held by the Saudis and that U.S. authorities expected he would be tortured there.

The torture allegation emerged again Tuesday as Abu Ali appeared in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. His lawyer, Ashraf Nubani, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Liam O’Grady that Abu Ali had been whipped and handcuffed “for days at a time” in a Saudi jail. He offered to show the judge the evidence in the courtroom.

Judge O’Grady declined, telling Abu Ali: “You are in the custody of the U.S. Marshals, and I can assure you that you will not suffer any other torture or humiliation while in the marshal’s custody.” The judge set a detention hearing for Thursday and ordered Abu Ali held until then.

Family members said they were grateful that Abu Ali had been returned home, but they ridiculed the charges and the government’s handling of the case. “The government has lied to us from the first day,” Abu Ali’s father, Omar Abu Ali, said outside the courthouse. He described his son as a peaceful, scholarly man who was arrested in June 2003 while taking his final exams at the University of Medina.

“Everything the government has said is lies upon lies upon lies,” Omar Abu Ali said.

But prosecutors defended their handling of the case and said they had struck a blow against terrorism. “After the devastating terrorist attack and murders of September 11th, the defendant turned his back on America and joined the cause of al-Qaida,” said U.S. Atty. Paul J. McNulty.

Defense lawyers said Abu Ali would plead not guilty. He is charged with conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida; contributing services to al-Qaida; receipt of funds and services from al-Qaida; and providing material support to terrorists. If convicted, he faces up to 80 years in prison under federal law.

The indictment said Abu Ali first went to Saudi Arabia in 2000 and lived with someone identified only as “Co-conspirator 1.” When he returned to Saudi Arabia in September 2002, Abu Ali told this co-conspirator “of his interest in joining al-Qaida,” the indictment says.

Abu Ali then gradually met other conspirators in Saudi Arabia and discussed plans to kill Bush in 2002 and 2003 with someone identified only as “Co-conspirator 2,” the indictment stated. Abu Ali allegedly obtained a “religious blessing” for the assassination plot from someone called “Co-conspirator 3.” It was not immediately clear how far the assassination plot may have progressed.

On several occasions, the indictment says, Abu Ali discussed with a conspirator how he could provide support to al-Qaida, “including conducting a terrorist operation and establishing an al-Qaida cell in the United States.” Abu Ali allegedly also received training in weapons and explosives while in Saudi Arabia and received money from al-Qaida co-conspirators that he used to purchase a cellular telephone and a laptop computer. Abu Ali was studying at the University of Medina when Saudi authorities arrested him and 18 or 19 other men suspected of having connections to people involved in the bombing on May 12, 2003, of three Western residential compounds in Riyadh. The bombing killed 23 people. The men were believed to be a jihadist cell in training, U.S. officials have said.

Abu Ali’s name also surfaced during the recent case of a group of Northern Virginia men accused of training for jihad overseas by playing paintball in the Virginia countryside. The FBI became interested in Abu Ali because he knew some of the men convicted in that case, U.S. officials have said.