A Nigerian on a terrorist mission for al-Qaida prayed, washed and put on perfume moments before trying to detonate a bomb in his underwear to bring down a jetliner on Christmas 2009, a prosecutor told jurors as the man's trial opened Tuesday.
DETROIT — A fellow passenger thought a Nigerian man was just making a routine bathroom trip during a Christmas 2009 flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, but the government contends the man was actually performing a ritual before attempting to detonate a bomb in his underwear.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab took a small bag to the bathroom and was gone 10 to 15 minutes, Mike Zantow of Madison, Wis., testified Tuesday as the first witness in Abdulmutallab's terrorism trial.
"It's wasn't real quick. I thought he was freshening up for arrival in Detroit. ... We had less than an hour to go," Zantow said.
A prosecutor said Abdulmutallab was performing a cleansing ritual to prepare for death before returning to his seat to try to detonate a bomb in his underwear on behalf of al-Qaida, an act that badly burned him but didn't destroy Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
Abdulmutallab, 24, is charged with eight crimes, including conspiracy to commit terrorism and the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. In his opening remarks to jurors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel said the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker believed his calling that day was martyrdom.
"He was preparing to die and enter heaven," Tukel said. "He purified himself. He washed. He brushed his teeth. He put on perfume."
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