The trial of a Nigerian man who admitted trying to bring down a US airliner on Christmas Day 2009 began on Tuesday in Detroit, USA.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 24, showed little emotion on the first day of his trial, silently staring forward with his chin on his hands during most of the prosecution's opening statement, which linked him to al-Qaeda.

The first witness in the trial, a passenger who helped subdue Abdulmutallab on the plane, testified the defendant's underwear looked like adult diapers and were bulky and burning.

Unsuccessful attack
In his opening statement, US Attorney Jonathan Tukel said that after the unsuccessful attack that Abdulmutallab admitted to "each and every person he came into contact with" he was trying "to bring down" Northwest Flight 253 as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam using a bomb supplied by al-Qaeda members in Yemen.

The device, which was sewn into Abdulmutallab's underwear, malfunctioned and burned him. He was then overpowered by other passengers and has has been in US custody ever since.

Tukel, in his opening statement to the jury, said all of the 290 people - 279 passengers, eight flight attendants and three cockpit crew members - on board Flight 253 "had plans to be somewhere, with one exception."

Mission
Abdulmutallab's "mission," he said, "his sole reason for being on Flight 253 was to blow it up ... His only reason for being there was to kill all the other passengers and himself."

Tukel showed the jury a picture of the remains of the underwear he said contained the explosive device Abdulmutallab tried to detonate. He warned jurors the evidence they would see later included an explicit photograph of the defendant's badly burned genitalia.

Abdulmutallab had tried unsuccessfully to have that photograph excluded from the trial.

Martyrdom video
The evidence also will include a "martyrdom video" Abdulmutallab allegedly made in early December, plus audio and video recordings of the frantic seven minutes after the underwear device malfunctioned until the plane made a dramatic emergency landing.

Abdulmutallab wore a silver-gray robe and trousers decorated with gold braid around the shoulders and a black skull cap. Beyond nervously twitching his thumb before the jury was brought into the courtroom, he showed no emotion during the proceedings.

Anthony Chambers, the attorney who helped Abdulmutallab with pretrial motions and jury selection, said he was reserving the right to make an opening statement at a later time.

Source: Reuters