The attorney handling Umar FaroukAbdulmutallab's case, a Nigerian allegedly on a terrorist mission for al-Qaeda, opened the trial in a Detroit court in the United States on Tuesday, saying the accused engaged in rituals inside the plane before attempting to detonate the bomd.Assistant United States attorney, Jonathan Tukel, in his opening statement added that 'virtually everyone aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 had holiday plans, but Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab believed his calling was martyrdom.In the plane's bathroom,Tukel said "he (Abdulmutallab) was engaging in rituals. He was preparing to die and enter heaven," Tukel said. "He purified himself. He washed. He brushed his teeth. He put on perfume. He was praying and perfuming himself to get ready to die."A prosecutor told jurors that Abdulmutallab 'prayed, washed and put on perfume moments before trying to detonate a bomb in his underwear to bring down an international jetliner on Christmas Day in 2009.'After returning to his seat, Abdulmutallab pushed a small plunger on the chemical bomb in his underwear, an action that produced a pop.''The bomb didn't work as planned but Abdulmutallab was engulfed in flames,' said Tukel, who displayed the flight's seating chart on a screen to show jurors where things happened on the plane.According to CBC News, 'opening statements began after an unexplained 70-minute recess requested by Abdulmutallab and his attorney, Anthony Chambers, shortly after they entered the courtroom.'Abdulmutallab is charged with conspiring to commit terrorism and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.The CBC News reported that Abdul-mutallab, 24, came to court wearing a dashiki, an African gown, and black skull cap and was silent as he settled at the defence table.Before the recess, his lawyer asked the judge to ban the word "bomb" or "explosive" from being used in the trial until final arguments, saying it's up to the jury to decide what caused the smoke and fire, but his request was not granted."I'm going to deny that motion. It makes no sense whatsoever," US District Judge Nancy Edmunds said.Edmunds also told Detroit-area attorney, Kurt Haskell to leave the courtroom before opening statements began because he could be called as a defence witness, since he was a passenger on Flight 253 and believes 'the US government conspired with Abdulmutallab to outfit him with a fake bomb.'Abdulmutallab is acting as his own lawyer. But he is relying on Chambers to handle the minute-by-minute work in the courtroom.Chambers will question most of the government's witnesses and persuaded Abdulmutallab to let him give the opening defence statement later on Tuesday. The result is likely to be a more focused defence and not a wild justification for trying to bring down the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight.Abdulmutallab has written a few court filings in his own hand, including a request to be judged by Islamic law.He once appeared agitated in court, declaring that Osama bin Laden and a radical Muslim cleric recently killed by the U.S. are alive. He also has objected to trial testimony from experts who will talk about al-Qaeda and martyrdom.The government said he told FBI agents he was working for al-Qaeda and directed by Anwar al-Alwaki, a radical, American-born Muslim cleric recently killed by the US in Yemen.
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