Confessed terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has asked for a new court-appointed legal adviser as he approaches sentencing next month.
The 25-year-old Nigerian and self-described al-Qaida operative hasn't appealed the surprise guilty plea made in October. Abdulmutallab faces up to life in prison for trying to use a bomb in his underwear to blow up an airliner approaching Metro Airport on Christmas Day 2009.
In a three-page, handwritten motion, delivered Monday to U.S. District Court in Detroit from the Milan federal penitentiary, Abdulmutallab complained that lawyers appointed to help him defend himself lied and misled him.
He asked Judge Nancy Edmunds for a male, Muslim attorney to help him understand legal issues surrounding his Jan. 19 sentencing. Edmunds set a hearing for 11 a.m. Jan. 6 on the request.
Abdulmutallab even suggested someone he met through the Federal Defender Office — Dearborn-based Elsayed Mostafa. "I find there is more understanding when the person is of the same religion," Abdulmutallab wrote.
Mostafa said Monday he was unaware of the letter or the personal request. Abdulmutallab had rejected lawyers from the Defender's office before Anthony Chambers was appointed.
"Yes, I have met him before, and if the judge asks me to I'll meet with him again before I commit myself to the case," Mostafa said.
Abdulmutallab wrote that Chambers and his associates failed to deliver documents he sought, clashed with him, visited him infrequently in prison and filed a motion without his consent that questioned his competence.
"Our relationship is strained to say the least," Abdulmutallab wrote.
"They treat me with contempt, especially away from the eyes of the court. …"
Chambers on Monday said: "He's not been misled or lied to in any way whatsoever. We've done everything we can to help Mr. Abdulmutallab, a misguided young man with a distorted sense of reality who did not take our advice."
Abdulmutallab has said he should be judged by Islamic law rather than U.S. laws, but Chambers said religion is not at issue. "We did our research and tried to understand what drives him, including his religion," Chambers said.
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