Underwear bomber asks to be freed

DETROIT, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- The "underwear bomber" charged with trying to blow up an airliner over Michigan on Christmas Day 2009 asked a judge to free him from prison.

Nigerian Umar Faroud Abdulmutallab, 24, told a judge Thursday he is being "unjustly detained" and should be judged by the Koran, not U.S. Laws, The Detroit News reported.

The request by Abdulmutallab, who is serving as his own lawyer in the case, has "zero" chance of being granted, said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University and former federal prosecutor.

"That argument has never worked in a U.S. court," Henning said. "You are judged, and international law recognizes, by the law of the nation where your crime took place."

Abdulmutallab, in a separate filing, claimed he had assaulted prison guards Wednesday while observing the holy month of Ramadan and that guards responded by using excessive force to restrain him in the federal prison in Milan. He asked U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds for protection from prison guards

The News said the complaint doesn't make clear what prompted the alleged assault.

Abdulmutallab is accused of concealing explosive chemicals in his underwear and trying to detonate them as a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam approached Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Passengers and flight crew members subdued him.