Nigerian underwear bomber appealing life term

February 17, 2012 at 2:00p.m.

DETROIT (AP) — A Nigerian man given a mandatory life sentence for trying to blow up a packed jetliner using a bomb sewn into his underwear on Christmas Day 2009 has appealed the punishment.

A notice of appeal by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was dated Thursday and posted today in the electronic court record for federal court in Detroit, where he was given the sentence.

Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty four months ago to all charges related to the attempt on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. Had the bomb not fizzled, the nearly 300 people aboard the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight would probably have been killed.