Abdulmutallab’s trial begins in US, risks life imprisonment

Farouk Abdulmutallab

Trial started on Tuesday in the case of Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, a Nigerian arrested and arraigned in the United States for attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner in December, 2009.
Abdulmutallab, linked with the al Qaeda terrorist group was picked up by security agents aboard a Northwest Airlines Airbus A330 with Delta Air Lines on Christmas Day in 2009.
The case had suffered a lot of legal setbacks as AbdulMutallab said he was prepared to represent himself at trial and had indicated his intention to address the jury directly.
However, Jury selection began on Tuesday in the case,  just days after a suspected collaborator in the plot was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.
The start of the federal trial in Detroit is expected to last several weeks.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the trial would be closely watched because the defendant, 24-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who had no formal legal training, has decided to act as his own attorney in defending against charges that could lead to a life sentence.
Last week, US District Judge, Nancy Edmunds granted a request by prosecutors to introduce a videotaped demonstration of an explosive device that authorities said is similar to the bomb allegedly detonated by  Abdulmutallab aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Prosecutors wrote that the video would show it would be “more probable that the defendant’s bomb endangered the safety of the aircraft, that the bomb was intended to kill other individuals, or was intended to wreck or destroy the aircraft.”
The judge is also allowing prosecutors to submit into evidence statements made by  Abdulmutallab as he was being treated in Detroit for injuries sustained in the explosion.
Authorities said Abdulmutallab admitted he exploded the device in the service of al Qaeda.

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