Washington (dpa) – A Nigerian man who attempted to blow up a passenger jet to Detroit on Christmas 2009 was sentenced to life in prison Thursday. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called underwear bomber, had pled guilty to the charges last year, saying that he planned the act in retaliation for US acts in Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere. At the sentencing hearing in a US district court in Michigan, passengers aboard the plane had told of their distress. The judge allowed prosecutors to show a video of a similar bomb being detonated, the Detroit Free Press reported online. On the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate the bomb hidden in his underwear after making numerous trips to the bathroom as he attempted to purify himself. When fellow passengers noticed smoke coming from his pants, several passengers tackled Abdulmutallab, pulled his cargo pants down and revealed bulky underwear that contained a bomb, witnesses said. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/rv37Z Tags: Nigeria, Prison, Underwear Bomber, United States Section: Latest News, West Africa