Abdulmutallab, 25, pleaded guilty in a Federal Court
in October 2011 of trying to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear as
part of a plot orchestrated by al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, al Qaeda
in the Arabian Peninsula.
He is due to be sentenced on Thursday in Detroit and
faces up to life in prison for the bombing attempt aboard a Northwest
Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit that had 289 people on board.
His lawyer Anthony Chambers argued that the mandatory
life sentence required under US law for some of the crimes he admitted
to committing was unconstitutional, particularly because no one was
seriously hurt during the bombing attempt.
“Given the circumstances and what did NOT occur in
the instant matter it is fair to say that the mandatory minimum sentence
of life imprisonment is excessive and grossly disproportionate to the
conduct,” Chambers said in a court filing, emphasising the word “not.”
While not making a specific request, he requested on
Abdulmutallab’s behalf that the judge impose a sentence below the
advisory guideline range because a life sentence would be a
“misinterpretation of justice.”
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