HE Nigerian who attempted to blow up a United States-bound airliner on Christmas day will be arraigned at a Michigan Federal Court tomorrow. He will appear in court on terrorism charges.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian mechanical engineering graduate, will be facing a civilian criminal trial.

The hearing, which was rescheduled last Monday, will take at a federal court at 1900 GMT to determine if United States officials can obtain a DNA sample from Abdulmutallab, who was accused of trying to blow up the airplane as it descended towards Detroit, Michigan.

He was, on Saturday, 26 December, charged in a federal court with trying to detonate the device as the plane approached Detroit.

Abdulmutallab is currently being held in a federal prison in Milan, Michigan.

He was transferred to the prison, last Sunday, after he was treated in hospital for serious burns suffered in the thwarted attack.

The charge sheet prepared by prosecutors claimed that Abdulmutallab tried to bring down the Northwest Airlines Airbus A330 using a device containing the explosive PETN, also known as pentaerythritol.

Passengers said he claimed he was unwell and covered himself with a blanket after he spent about 20 minutes in the toilet.

They claimed it was when he was under the blanket that he attempted to detonate the explosive which failed to explode due to some fault.

Meanwhile, criminal defendants tend to scorn public defenders, but the Detroit criminal bar said Abdulmutallab would be hard- pressed to find any better defence team than the one headed by Miriam Siefer of the Federal Defender Office in Detroit.

"These guys are good," said prominent Detroit criminal lawyer, William Swor, who had defended terrorism suspects and other high-profile criminal suspects over the years. "The Federal Defender Office in Detroit can hold its own against any law firm in the country."

Siefer is the lead attorney for Abdulmutallab. She'll be joined by veteran defenders Jill Price and Leroy Soles.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/07012010/news/news9.html