Nigerian-born terror suspect, Umar AbdulMutallab, has asked for a new lawyer.
The student, who is awaiting sentencing by a United States federal court in Michigan for allegedly trying to blow up an American airliner on Christmas Day in 2009, said his current lawyer, Anthony Chambers, deceived him, Detroit Free Press reported on Wednesday.
AbdulMutallab, who pleaded guilty against the advice of his standby lawyer for attempting to blow up the Detroit-bound aircraft, told US District Judge Nancy Edmunds in a letter on Monday that the prominent Detroit lawyer lied to him.
He said the lawyer did not visit him and had failed to provide documents he requested for his upcoming sentencing. He asked Edmunds to appoint a Muslim lawyer.
The judge has set a hearing on the request for January 6, 2012 while the suspect is to be sentenced on January 19, 2012.
Chambers said AbdulMutallab was misguided.
“We have gone above and beyond for him ... He’s having regrets over what I would consider a bad decision to plead guilty,” Chambers said.
In the letter dated December 12, 2011, AbdulMutallab wrote, “I do not want Mr. Chambers and his associates to continue serving as my standby counsel. Our relationship is strained to say the least.
“They treat me with contempt, especially away from the eyes of the court.”
He said he hadn’t seen Chambers in months.
Edmunds appointed Chambers to serve as AbdulMutallab’s standby lawyer after the suspect fired federal lawyer, Miriam Siefer, and her staff. Though he insisted on representing himself, he relied heavily on Chambers to question potential jurors for his trial.
AbdulMutallab pleaded guilty – against Chambers’ advice – in October just as the first trial witness was to be called.
The Nigerian student suspected to be a member of the al-Qaeda operatives pleaded guilty to trying to detonate a bomb concealed in his underwear on an Amsterdam-to-Detroit jetliner carrying more than 300 people. The plot was foiled when passengers and crew members overcame him.
He suffered burns to his genitals and legs.
He told Edmunds he tried to carry out the bombing in retaliation for the murder of innocent civilians in Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere by the US.
He faces a mandatory 30 years in prison, but could get life for some of the charges, which include conspiring to commit terrorism and using a weapon of mass destruction.
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