By Arun Kumar

Washington, Dec 12 (IANS) A US court has sentenced a former Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) student to 57 months in prison for allegedly making threats against former president George W Bush.

United States District Judge James T. Moody Friday sentenced Buddhi, 38, who was arrested in 2006 and found guilty of making internet-based threats to Bush, then vice president Dick Cheney, their wives and then secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld.

Buddhi had also been found guilty for an internet-based threat to destroy buildings by fire or explosives. Buddhi was convicted by a jury in June, 2007 on all counts in an eleven count indictment. The former Purdue University PhD student will have to spend an additional three years under "supervised release" under a probation officer, the court ruled.

He can however go in appeal to a Chicago court within 10 days of the judgement. As he has been in prison since April 2006, the period already served is likely to be deducted from his sentence term.

The US Secret Service, which investigated the case had received information that a person posted a threatening message directed towards Bush and others on a financial web-site message board. That posting and other related postings were eventually traced back to Buddhi.

Buddhi, who represented himself during the sentence hearing after firing his lawyer, said earlier that he was given the short end of the stick, and claimed the trial had been unfair.

Before the sentencing Buddhi submitted to the judge that he had got "ineffective assistance" of the counsel and said it was the "gravest error of justice". Buddhi on Thursday fired his lawyer Arlington Foley for not discussing the case properly, and said would "involuntarily represent himself" at the hearing.