Dzhokar Tsarnaev, the 21-year-old Chechan national accused of planting a bomb on April 2013’s Boston Marathon is set to appear in court this week. It will be the first time the public will get a glimpse of the alleged suspect after 17 months from solitary confinement at a federal prison in Devens.

According to the Boston Herald, he will be attending his case’s final pretrial before jury selection begins on January 5.

The alleged Boston Marathon bombing suspect last appeared in U.S. District Court July 10, 2013, when he pleaded not guilty to a 30-count indictment that charged him with using weapons of mass destruction, referring to the two shrapnel-packed homemade pressure cooker bombs that killed two women and a boy and injured 260 others. The bombs exploded at the end of the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15, 2013.

Lawyers representing Tsarnaev confirmed he will attend the final pretrial hearing, reported the Boston Herald.

My Fox Boston noted that at the hearing, the judge is expected to rule on another request from Tsarnaev’s lawyers to move his trial out of state. It would be the lawyer’s second attempt at a venue change, citing as a reason that the alleged suspect cannot get a fair trial in Massachusetts due to pre-trial publicity and media leaks.

Yahoo! News wrote that the pretrial hearing will “undoubtedly renew public interest in the bombings, which are still shrouded in mystery.” There has been little insight on into how and why the Tsarnaev brothers allegedly came to commit the crime, the online news cite reported. According to an FBI agent involved in the investigation, there are still no details on where the two bombs had been built.

The trials are expected to last four to six months and if convicted, Tsarnaev may face a sentencing trial where the jury will decide if he gets life in prison or the death penalty.