An appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Nigerian man who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner with a bomb in his underwear.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab admitted he was outfitted with a bomb on behalf of al-Qaida. But he still appealed his guilty plea, claiming a Detroit federal judge made a series of improper decisions.
In a 3-0 decision Monday, an appeals court affirmed the conviction and life sentence. The Cincinnati-based court says the judge did nothing wrong in declining to order a mental health exam.
The court says the complexity of Abdulmutallab's plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas 2009 shows he was competent to stand trial.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed to have organized the attack.
Abdulmutallab was convicted in a U.S. federal court of eight criminal counts, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder of 289 people. On February 16, 2012 he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Abdulmutallab's explosive caused a fire in his underpants but didn't destroy the plane. He is serving his time at the federal government's so-called Super Max prison in Colorado.
