Hobbled by leg irons, a young Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a US plane on Christmas Day pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance amid heightened security.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, spoke softly from the dock on Friday to confirm his name, how it was spelled and his age. His expression flat, his eyes averted from the gathered crowd, he said he understood the six charges against him.
His court-appointed lawyer, Miriam Siefer, entered the plea of not guilty to all six charges, including attempted murder of 290 people on board the plane and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction. He faces life imprisonment if convicted.
PHOTO: AFP
“At this time our client would like to enter a plea of not guilty,” Siefer said, but added: “We have — with our client’s consent — consented to detention.”
Abdulmutallab, son of a prominent Nigerian banker, was arrested after the botched al-Qaeda plot, in which explosives allegedly stitched into his underwear failed to detonate aboard a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
He was badly burned when the device sparked a fire.
Asked if he had taken any medication in the past 24 hours, he said: “Yes. Painkillers,” holding his left hip.
It was not US intelligence that thwarted the attack, but passengers and crew, who tackled and restrained Abdulmutallab before he was escorted off the plane.
The foiled bombing triggered global alarm, leading the US to adopt stringent new screening and security measures at airports around the world. Dozens of names have also been added to no-fly lists.
US President Barack Obama on Thursday ordered a sweeping overhaul of flawed intelligence services, which he has blamed for missing red flags that could have detected the plot.
Obama said spy agencies did not properly “connect and understand” disparate data that could have detected the plot during its planning stages by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.
Probes revealed that US analysts knew Abdulmutallab was an extremist and that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was plotting an attack, but did not connect the dots.
Ahead of the arraignment, US marshals helped local police secure the area around the ornate, marble-floored Theodore Levin Courthouse.
Metal barricades blocked off the street along the austere building. Inside, two bomb-sniffing dogs and their handlers had earlier checked every room and, as is now standard for US courtrooms, every visitor to the Depression-era courthouse passed through a metal detector.
A man who said he represented the Nigerian embassy but would not give his name told reporters that Abdulmutallab’s family had not attended the hearing.
Citing British intelligence officials, CBS television reported the former University College London student boasted during his interrogation that some 20 others were undergoing training to carry out similar attacks.
US officials have said Abdulmutallab has provided useful leads during interrogations with FBI and other US agents who are leading the investigation.
The head of national intelligence meanwhile named former CIA director John McLaughlin to lead a probe into US intelligence failures exposed by the Christmas Day attack and a US soldier’s November shooting rampage at a Texas army base.
Both Abdulmutallab and Major Nidal Hasan, the army psychiatrist who turned his guns on fellow service members, killing 12 soldiers and one civilian, are believed to be inspired by a radical US-born Islamic cleric now in Yemen — Anwar al-Awlaqi.
In Detroit, around 20 demonstrators stood shivering outside the courthouse holding US flags and signs declaring “Not in the name of Islam” and “Islam is against terrorism.”
Majed Moughni, who moved to the Detroit area from Lebanon, said he was worried there would be a backlash against Muslims.
“We’re trying to unite as Muslims and we’re going to eradicate all terrorism from our homes and our mosques and we’re going to send terrorists back to the caves of Afghanistan,” he said.
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