'Not guilty' plea in bomb plot case

 

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab made his first court appearance on Friday in the city of Detroit, to hear six charges over the alleged failed attempt to set off a bomb stitched into his underwear on a Northwest Airlines transatlantic flight.

The 23-year-old said little during his brief appearance in the Detroit court, in which Mark Randon, a US magistrate, entered the not guilty plea on his behalf.

Tom Ackerman, Al Jazeera's correspondent, said that the not guilty plea could mean that the government will either have to present its case against Abdulmutallab or could negotiate with him to enter a different plea.

"Supposedly there were many witnesses so the government does not have to rely on a confession from him. So it remains to be seen what shape any plea would take."

Protest outside court

Ackerman said Abdulmutallab was indicted for attempted murder of the 290 people on board the plane.

"But this charge does not carry the longest sentence. Rather, the most serious of the six charges is trying to use a weapon of mass destruction", he said.

Ackerman said that Abdulmutallab may also be detained indefinitely for illegal alien entry to the US.

He added that about 100 residents of Detroit - which has one of the largest Arab communities outside the Middle East - demonstrated outside the court in solidarity with the US government and against al-Qaeda who they said “were trying to smear all Muslims”.

 

Allegedly linked to al-Qaeda, Abdulmutallab's failed attack on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit has triggered worldwide security alarm.

 

 

In particular, it has led the United States to adopt stringent new screening and security measures at airports. Dozens of names have also been added to no-fly lists.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

An unmarked car transports Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab into the underground garage of the Federal Court building in Detroit, Michigan January 8, 2010.

Al-Jazeera

A Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a US-bound plane on Christmas Day has had a plea of not guilty entered for him during his first appearance in a US court.

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