Accused Underpants Bomber’s Trial to Begin Oct. 4, Judge Says
The man accused of the 2009 Christmas day attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane with explosives hidden in his underpants lost a bid to have his trial moved back from Oct. 4.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is representing himself in federal court in Michigan, asked that the trial be postponed, contending the U.S. was late in providing some evidence. Prosecutors denied any delays in giving information to the defense and opposed rescheduling the trial.
“It’s not just the government and the defense that need to be considered,” U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds said at a hearing today in Detroit. “It’s the public as well.”
She did set Aug. 5 as the new cutoff date for filing motions. The original deadline passed on June 24. Jury selection is set to start Oct. 4. Opening statements would begin a week later, the judge said.
Abdulmutallab, 24, faces eight criminal counts, including conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. The indictment also says he has ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. He has pleaded not guilty and faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
He fired his court-appointed attorneys in September and is being aided by a so-called standby counsel, Detroit attorney Anthony Chambers, who has filed pretrial motions on his behalf.
Chambers and Abdulmutallab said in court papers that the U.S. released multiple documents on June 1, three weeks before the deadline for pretrial motions. Chambers said in court papers June 14 that he and the defendant “need additional time to review all the new documents.” The pretrial sharing of evidence is known as discovery.
‘We Received More’
“The government told us we received complete discovery and then we received more,” Chambers said in a phone interview yesterday.
Some of the material had been provided previously and other documents contained information already known to the defendant, the U.S. said. The judge today said the evidence provided was a “relatively small amount” and shouldn’t hamper the defense.
Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying 279 passengers and 11 crew, originated in Amsterdam and was approaching Detroit Dec. 25, 2009, when Abdulmutallab tried to detonate the explosives, according to prosecutors. He set fire to his clothes and a wall before passengers subdued him, prosecutors said.
The case is U.S. v. Abdulmutallab, 10-cr-20005, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit).
To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Cronin Fisk in Detroit at mcfisk@bloomberg.net; Steve Raphael in Detroit at sraphael5@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
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