Underwear bomber appeals life sentence
The Associated Press
Posted: Feb 17, 2012 1:07 PM ET
Last Updated: Feb 17, 2012 12:58 PM ET
A courtroom drawing shows Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in a Detroit courtroom in October 2011. (Jerry Lemenu/Associated Press)
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A Nigerian man given a life sentence for trying to blow up a packed jetliner using a bomb sewn into his underwear on Christmas Day 2009 has appealed the punishment.
A notice of appeal by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was dated Thursday and posted Friday in the electronic court record for federal court in Detroit.
An email seeking comment was sent Friday to a spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney's office there.
Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to all charges related to the attempt on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Defiantly declaring "a day of victory," Abdulmutallab was given a mandatory life sentence Thursday. People aboard the flight testified that the failed attack had disturbed their sleep and travels for more than two years.
Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to all charges related to Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He seemed to relish the mandatory sentence and defended his actions as rooted in the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an.
"Mujahideen are proud to kill in the name of God," he said. "Today is a day of victory."
Had the bomb not fizzled, almost 300 people aboard the flight would probably have been killed.
The case stirred renewed fears that terrorists could still bring down an American jetliner more than eight years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, and it accelerated installation of body scanners at U.S. airports.
Before Thursday's sentencing, four passengers and a crew member from the flight told U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds that they have struggled to live and travel normally since the incident on Christmas Day 2009.
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