DNA Hearing Canceled for Nigerian Held in Northwest Airlines Terror Attack

[Purveyor]

By Margaret Cronin Fisk

Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- A court hearing over a government request to take DNA from a Nigerian man arrested in the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines plane was canceled, said federal prosecutors, declining to provide an explanation.

Gina Balaya, a spokeswoman for Detroit U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg, said the office won’t comment on the move or why the government is seeking a DNA sample from Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly attempted to trigger an explosion on Flight 253 from Amsterdam using chemicals hidden under his clothing as it approached Detroit Dec. 25. Passengers and crew restrained him until the aircraft landed.

Abdulmutallab, 23, was charged the next day in a five-page affidavit filed in Detroit federal court by FBI Special Agent Theodore Peisig and signed by U.S. District Judge Paul Borman. The U.S. has 30 days to seek a grand jury indictment against Abdulmutallab, the son of a prominent Nigerian banker, said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor.

The next step “is for him to be brought before a magistrate judge for a bail hearing, or prosecutors might wait for the indictment,” said Mintz, now with law firm McCarter & English LLP in Newark, New Jersey. He added that the government would likely ask the court to deny bail. A detention hearing is scheduled for Jan. 8, Belaya said.

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