Accused “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is defending himself against terrorism charges, will not make his own opening statement on Tuesday. Rather, the accused has engaged his legal adviser, Detroit lawyer Anthony Chambers, to make the opening statement.
The decision came one day after a jury was selected in the high-profile case. Abdulmutallab had so far taken a largely passive role in his defense after firing his legal team last year.
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He questioned only one potential juror during the selection process and let Chambers handle the rest.?Abdulmutallab, 24, faces up to life in prison if convicted of charges that include attempted murder, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit terrorism.
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He was accused of hiding powerful explosives inside his underwear and tried to detonate a device on Christmas Day 2009 aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam. ?The bomb failed to detonate, prosecutors said, and some of the approximately 300 passengers and crew pounced on Abdulmutallab and extinguished the flames.
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