The young immigrant who was arrested days before the 2004 Republican National Convention on charges of planning to blow up the Herald Square subway station will take the stand in his own defense, his lawyer said.

A jury was selected in federal court in Brooklyn yesterday to hear the case against Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23, who was arrested in August 2004 as he walked from the Bay Ridge Islamic bookstore where he worked to a police stationhouse to discuss a pending misdemeanor charge.

During the trial – expected to last less than a month – the government is likely to introduce a trove of electronic evidence. Judge Nina Gershon hinted at this yesterday when she asked whether any prospective jurors would have difficulty wearing a headset to listen to recordings during the upcoming trial. Prosecutors claim to have audio and video recordings that show Mr. Siraj plotting with a second defendant, James Elshafay, and a paid police informant to commit an act of terrorism.

Mr. Siraj’s attorney, Martin Stolar, does not dispute the existence of the subway station plot, or Mr. Siraj’s connection to it. But Mr. Stolar said he would argue the source for the plot is a police informant whom, Mr. Stolar alleges, entrapped Mr. Siraj and goaded him into participating in the plot. The informant went by the name Osama Daoudi, Mr. Stolar said.

Mr. Stolar has claimed the confidential informant brainwashed Mr. Siraj by showing him images of American soldiers committing atrocities, including photos from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

“The idea of doing something violent to bring economic harm to the United States was Daoudi’s idea,” Mr. Stolar said. “That is what he convinced Matin to get into. Matin said, ‘How about we do it this way?’ Elshafay was talking about bombing bridges.”

Mr. Elshafay is incarcerated in the same federal prison in Brooklyn where Mr. Siraj has been held. Mr. Stolar speculates that Mr. Elshafay is cooperating with the government. The government has declined to discuss the status of its case against Mr. Elshafay. Court papers indicate that Mr. Elshafay was from Staten Island, did not work, and had $38 in his bank account when he was arrested in 2004.

While Mr. Stolar will likely refer to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during the trial, the prosecution has indicated in pretrial hearings that it will focus its case on a specific location: the subway station at Herald Square.

The criminal complaint alleges that Mr. Siraj sought to cause economic harm to New York, not kill people. Still, Mr. Siraj is alleged to have said that homeless people who sought shelter in the station would likely die in the bomb attack. Law enforcement officials have not said Mr. Siraj ever had access to explosives.

The nine women and three men on the jury were selected yesterday. Opening arguments are expected on Monday. This week, lawyers involved in the case sifted through responses to juror questionnaires asking, among other things, that prospective jurors state any prejudices they have towards Muslims and to describe their use of the Herald Square subway station.

Mr. Siraj sat still during the court proceedings yesterday, fidgeting less than many of the 101 prospective jurors who were also in the courtroom. He did not exchange any glances with his five relatives who were also present at times.

Mr. Siraj is a Muslim immigrant from Pakistan who is in America illegally, authorities have said. Mr. Siraj first traveled to America on vacation in 1996, before returning to his home in Karachi, Pakistan, his mother, Shahina Parveen, said. He immigrated to America in 1999.