USA: Shama Chopra, a Canadian woman who was aboard the flight on which Umar Abdulmutallab is accused of attempting to bomb, says 'justice will be served' at the Nigerian's sentencing

Record ID: 357460

  • Title: USA: Shama Chopra, a Canadian woman who was aboard the flight on which Umar Abdulmutallab is accused of attempting to bomb, says 'justice will be served' at the Nigerian's sentencing
  • Date: 17th February 2012
  • Summary: DETROIT, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 16, 2012) (REUTERS) REPORTERS TALKING TO SHAMA CHOPRA WHO WAS ABOARD FLIGHT WITH UMAR ABDULMUTALLAB (SOUNDBITE) (English) SHAMA CHOPRA, WHO WAS ABOARD FLIGHT WITH UMAR ABDULMUTALLAB, SAYING: "His parents - they called me from Nigeria, and they apologized. It broke my heart. They said, 'my son was mislead,' and I believe so, bu
  • Embargoed: 3rd March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa, Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA5Q0VVUZT9XCKF14Y1XA0METQ9
  • Story Text: A federal judge is set to decide on Thursday (February 16) if the Nigerian man who pleaded guilty of trying to blow up a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit in 2009 will spend the rest of his life in prison.
    A bomb hidden in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, now 25, caused a fire but failed to explode on a Delta Airlines flight carrying 289 people on Dec. 25, 2009. U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds will decide whether Abdulmutallab should be sentenced to life in prison as called for under existing sentencing guidelines.
    Shama Chopra was aboard that flight and says she will testify in court as to how the incident has affected her life. She says that "justice will be served today."
    "His parents - they called me from Nigeria, and they apologized. It broke my heart. They said, 'my son was mislead,' and I believe so, but later on we find out that he had been fully trained by Anway al-Awlaki, and he was getting training and everything, but he tried to kill us and somehow he missed it. So, in this kind of case, I think justice will be served today, and he will die of imprisonment, and that's what the punishment (will be) for him," Chopra told reporters.
    Chopra, a Canadian from Montreal, says she feels badly for Abdulmutallab. "Being a mother I feel for him also at the same time, because I have two boys a little bit older than him. I just want to tell him that this is not good. Today is the way - you are working like name of jihad? This is not jihad. He said, 'I'm taking the revenge because the U.S. is trying a lot of drone on Afghanistan and Iraq and all those things,' - and that's why he's taking this revenge, but that's not the way to take the revenge."
    Abdulmutallab's lawyer, Anthony Chambers, earlier this week asked for a lighter sentence, saying the mandatory life sentence was too harsh for an attempted bombing that killed no one. Prosecutors have urged the judge to give Abdulmutallab the maximum sentence - consecutive terms of life in prison.
    In October, Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty days after his trial began, saying he had wanted to avenge the killing of innocent Muslims by the United States. When the bomb caused a fire but failed to explode, Abdulmutallab was quickly subdued by passengers and crew. The incident led U.S. officials to bolster airport security, deploying full-body scanners to try to detect hidden explosives.
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