Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab

By Tokunbo Adedoja and Paul Ohia

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 25, the Nigerian who attempted to bomb a Detroit-bound American aircraft on Christmas day in 2009, has been sentenced to life in jail.

Abdulmutallab, who entered the court room at about 1:35pm, wearing a white T-shirt, white skull cap and khaki trousers with sneakers, had last October pleaded guilty to charges filed against him. Terrorism charges in US carry mandatory life sentence.

Delivering judgment Thursday, almost 26 months after he embarked on the botched suicide mission, US District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds slammed four life sentences plus 50 years on the Nigerian.

The judge, who said, “This was an act of terrorism that cannot be quibbled with", noted that, “the defendant has never expressed doubt or remorse about his mission.”
Judge Edmunds said: “To the contrary, he sees that mission as divinely inspired and a continuing mission.”

The judge had earlier struck out a motion by Abdulmutallab's standby lawyer, Anthony Chanbers, that the mandatory life sentence against him was unconstitutional, cruel and unusual punishment.

Also at the sentencing, where five of the 289 passengers aboard Northwest Airline Flight 253, were allowed to give their remarks, a 52-second videotape of the explosion of 200 grammes of Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) - the explosive substance concealed in his underwear - was played to show the kind of harm it would have caused had his mission been successful.

First to speak was a flight attendant on that aircraft, Lamare Mason, who helped put out the fire ignited by Abdulmutallab's underwear bomb. He said his life had changed since that day and that Abdulmutallab had stolen the pleasure of doing his work as a flight attendant.

Another passenger, Shama Chopra, while noting that she had conquered the fear of flying since the failed attempt to bomb her flight, said as a mother she felt for Abdulmutallab but added, “you had no right to take my life.”

Chopra, while noting the evil that terrorists were perpetrating around the world, said: “I'm standing here today to see goodness win over evil", adding, "Today is your turn and justice will be served."

She, however, presented praying beads to Abdulmutallab's lawyer so that he (Abdulmutal-lab), could use it to pray for forgiveness.

In his own remarks, Theophilus Maranga, another passenger on that flight, wondered why anyone would want to kill in the name of God. He added that since that incident he had been afraid to fly.

Another passenger, Lori Haskell, while telling the court that she thought her life was over during the incident, urged the court to put Abdulmutallab behind bars for life.
Abdulmutallab, who was given the floor to speak before the videotape of the explosion was played in the courtroom, however did not show any sign of remorse, as he said: “My life and lives of Muslims have also changed due to US attacks.”

With his sentencing, Abdulmutallab, who had been detained at a federal prison in Milan since his arrest, may be moved to federal super-maximum prison in Florence, Colorado, where other convicted terrorists are serving their time.

The 37-acre facility, called USP Florence ADMAX, which is located in Fremont County, opened in 1994 and  was established to house high profile prisoners who are deemed the most dangerous and in need of the tightest control of all the prisoners in US federal prison system.

Abdulmutallab's journey to life behind bars began on December 26, 2009 - less than 24 hours after his botched suicide bombing - when he was charged with attempting to blow up and placing a destructive device on a US civil aircraft at US District Court of Eastern District of Michigan.

On January 6, 2010, additional charges were added in a grand jury indictment which included attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder of 289 people.

At his appearance in court on January 8, 2010, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

After pleading not guilty to the charges, he did not appear in court until September 2010, when he announced the sack of his lawyers and opted to represent himself. 

He, however, reluctantly accepted a court-appointed counsel, Anthony Chambers, mandated to stand in the gap for him by Judge Edmunds.

During that court appearance, he also hinted that he might be pleading guilty to some of the charges. Three months later, terrorism charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in jail, were slammed on him.

On the second day of his trial in October 2011, Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to all the charges against the advice of his standby lawyer, thereby setting in motion his journey to life behind bars with no chance of parole.

Following his guilty plea, sentencing was then slated for January 2012 by Judge Edmunds. But days before the sentencing, Abdulmutallab filed a motion in court requesting a new court-appointed legal adviser.

In that motion, he accused his court-appointed counsel of lying to him, misleading him and treating him with contempt. He requested a new legal adviser that would brief him on the legal issues surrounding his sentencing. He specifically made a request for a male counsel, who is a Muslim, and even suggested the name of Elsayed Mostafa, whom he met through the Federal Defender Office.

Federal prosecutors, however, argued in a counter motion that because he represents himself, he had no right to a standby counsel, let alone standby counsel of his choice.

Ruling on the motion last month, Judge Edmund rejected Abdulmutallab's request and upheld prosecutors' counter motion. February 16 was then slated for sentencing.

Just last Monday, Abdulmutallab, through his court-appointed counsel filed another motion in court arguing that a mandatory life sentence for him would be unfair for a crime that did not hurt any passengers on that flight.

No reaction came from the Nigerian Embassy in Washington at the time of filing this report as the Ambassador, Prof. Adebowale Adefuye, said he was still waiting to be briefed by the attorney appointed by the embassy, Mr. Oladele Kayode, to observe the trial.

Speaking with THISDAY, US-based Nigerian lawyer, Kayode, said by filing a motion to hold mandatory life statute unconstitutional and requesting a variance, Abdulmutallab was trying to force the window of appeal slightly ajar so that he could have something to hold on to for the Court of Appeal's review in the very likely event that the Judge denies the motion and gives him the mandatory life.

Kayode said Abdulmutallab carried an aggravating baggage on his shoulders and these factors weighed very heavily against him during the sentencing.

Kayode said this had portrayed him as somebody that could still be considered to be very dangerous. He said these were among the aggravating factors that swayed the mind of the judge in arriving at the sentence.

His court-appointed lawyer, however, said Abdulmutallab plans to appeal the sentences on his own.

Abdulmutallab's lawyer Thursday released a statement from his family.

In the statement, the family said: “We strongly appeal to the American Justice Department to review the life sentence. We are grateful to God that the unfortunate incident that day did not result in any injury or death.

“We pray for a more peaceful world and hope that all well-meaning persons, institutions and nations will work to establish world peace.”

Also reacting to the verdict, the US Justice Department through Attorney General Eric Holder said: “As this investigation and prosecution have shown, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a remorseless terrorist who believes it is his duty to kill Americans. For attempting to take the lives of 289 innocent people, he has been appropriately sentenced to serve every day of the rest of his life in prison.

“Today’s sentence once again underscores the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in both incapacitating terrorists and gathering valuable intelligence from them.”