Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the former president of the University College London Islamic Society who went on to hide a bomb in his underwear and fail to blow up a Delta Airlines flight over Detroit, was sentenced Thursday to four life terms in prison plus 50 years.
An unrepentant Abdulmutallab said he was was “proud to kill in the name of God” and proclaimed, “Today is a day of victory and God is great.”
The life sentence was mandatory after Abdulmutallab pled guilty last year to eight charges, including attempted murder, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism.
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He is expected to be sent to the federal “supermax” pentitentiary in Florence, Colorado. The prison, widely considered the most secure in the U.S., already houses other notorious inmates, including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, and 1993 World Trade Center bombing conspirator Ramzi Yousef.
At least he’ll have some charming company. You may recognize the names of some of the other inmates.
“If you laugh with us now, we will laugh with you later on the day of judgment,” he said. Abdulmutallab also said he had been “greatly inspired” by Anwar al-Awlaki and insisted that Awlaki, who had been killed in a U.S. drone strike just weeks earlier, was still alive.
According to federal prosecutors, Al Qaeda leader al-Awlaki personally directed and approved the attempted bombing.
