Underwear bomber to receive sentence

DETROIT, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Convicted terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab will likely be given one last opportunity to speak Thursday in Detroit at his sentencing, legal experts said.

The Nigerian student who pleaded guilty in October faces up to life in prison for trying to use a bomb in his underwear to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it approached Detroit's Metro Airport on Christmas Day in 2009.

He will likely be sentenced to life in the Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo., which houses foreign and domestic terrorists including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, The Detroit News reported.

His legal adviser has argued that a life sentence is too harsh because no one was killed in the attempted bombing.

Abdulmutallab, who came from an affluent family in Nigeria, joined al-Qaida after watching Internet videos produced by radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, prosecutors said.

His parents arrived in Detroit on Tuesday. Adolph Mongo, a jury and media consultant who met with the family, said Abdulmutallab has refused to see his parents but the family was planning to attend the sentencing in support of their son, the newspaper reported.