国际英语新闻：Christmas bombing suspect to be tried in criminal court: Attorney General

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that the Nigerian man suspected of attacking a U.S.-bound airliner is to be charged in criminal court rather than military system.

The Obama administration has drawn strong criticism from Republicans on its handling of the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to set off an explosive device on a Delta/Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.

Republicans insisted that the Nigerian should have been taken as an enemy combatant and refused of access to an attorney, in a way that they deemed to present a better chance to get key information.

"No agency supported the use of law of war detention for Abdulmutallab, and no agency has since advised the Department of Justice that an alternative course of action should have been, or should now be, pursued," the attorney general wrote in a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and 10 other Republican senators who had raised skepticism on charging Abdulmutallab.

"The practice of the U.S. government followed by prior and current administrations without a single exception, has been to arrest and detain under federal criminal law all terrorist suspects who are apprehended inside the United States," he added.

Abdulmutallab has been accused of six accounts including attempted murder and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

During the investigation, the suspect admitted that he received the explosive device and training from al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, but later pleaded not guilty at a court in Detroit, Michigan.