THE American government on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment without parole the indicted Nigerian ‘underwear bomber’, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, in a federal court in Detroit, United States. Abdulmutallab is the 25-year-old Nigerian who was arrested in the United States on Christmas Day in 2009 for attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight.
He returned to federal court in Detroit on Thursday to receive a “mandatory life sentence,” months after pleading guilty to trying to blow up the aircraft, which he claimed was a suicide mission for al-Qaeda.
Abdulmutallab had tried to detonate explosive chemicals that were hidden in his underwear minutes before the plane was to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
The device didn’t work as planned, but still produced flame, smoke and panic in the cabin.
On the second day of his trial in October, Abdulmutallab suddenly pleaded guilty to all the charges.
In a defiant speech, he said he was carrying a “blessed weapon” to avenge Muslims who had been killed or poorly treated around the world.
He admitted he was inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric and leading al-Qaeda figure in Yemen, who was killed by a US drone strike last fall.
“The Qur’an obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah those who fight you, and kill them wherever you find them … an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” Abdulmutallab said.
Thursday’s hearing was an open platform for passengers and crew who wanted to speak, but only five of nearly 300 were allowed to address the court, according to the government, the CBS News reported.
Anthony Chambers, an attorney appointed to assist Abdulmutallab, had said he would speak again on Thursday but didn’t know what he would say.
Chambers had urged the US District Judge, Nancy Edmunds, to declare that a mandatory life sentence was unconstitutional, claiming it was a cruel punishment in a case where no one but Abdulmutallab was physically hurt.
His groin was badly burned.
But the government had said that was not the threshold.
“Unsuccessful terrorist attacks still engender fear in the broader public, which, after all, is one of their main objectives,” prosecutors said in a court filing on Wednesday.
“In addition, the enormous cost of the augmented security measures adopted as a direct result of defendant’s unsuccessful terrorist attack are borne by the American public at large in both increased cost, inconvenience and wasted time at airports.”