No delays in Oct. 4 trial, underwear bomber is told

[SpartanDem]

Source: Detroit Free Press


The so-called underwear bomber who has insisted on going it alone in court lost one courtroom battle today: a federal judge ordered him to stand trial Oct. 4, saying that's plenty of time to prepare a defense


Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian national charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner with a bomb hidden in his underwear on Christmas Day 2009, pleaded for more time to go over the government's evidence. But U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds turned down his request, noting that scores of witnesses will need ample time to make travel arrangments so they can be at trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Martin said there could be as many as 400 witnesses in the case.

"We need this case to move along," Edmunds told the defendant in court today. "This is the date."

There were some tense moments in the courtroom today as Edmunds suggested that Abdulmutallab reconsider his decision to be his own lawyer, and let his stand-by counsel, Anthony Chambers, represent him.

"No, I still want it to be this way," said Abdulmutallab.






Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20110125/NEWS05/110125047/No-delays-in-Oct.-4-trial-underwear-bomber-is-told#ixzz1C5FWHIcJ

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Apparently he has recovered from his Great Balls of Fire.