CAMDEN (New Jersey) - THREE immigrant brothers involved in a plot to kill military personnel, possibly on Fort Dix, were sentenced on Tuesday to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
The government had said the men were familiar with the Army post because their father's pizza shop delivered there, and it presented the case as one of the most startling examples of homegrown terrorism.
Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka, ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, professed their innocence in courtroom speeches before US District Judge Robert Kugler handed down their sentences. Two other men were to be sentenced Wednesday.
All five were convicted by a jury in December of conspiracy to kill military personnel but were acquitted on attempted-murder charges. Four of them also were convicted on weapons offences.
Two of the Duka brothers, Dritan and Shain, were given sentences of life plus 30 years because of one of the weapons counts against them. Defence lawyers and the men's relatives said the sentences were expected, but the relatives also said they were unjust.
The men also were ordered to pay a total of US$125,000(S$187,000) in restitution to the Army, which beefed up security at Fort Dix after hearing about the investigation into the plot. In meting out the sentences, the judge agreed with prosecutors that the case was shocking.
The men were arrested in May 2007. Prosecutors say they had taken training trips to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania and scouted out Fort Dix and other military sites. Five service members in uniform sat in the back of the courtroom as the sentences were handed down on Tuesday.
During the sentencing hearing, the Duka brothers told the judge they were innocent and were convicted because of their unpopular political views. They blamed the government's use of two convicted criminals as paid informants in the case, claiming those informants cajoled them into saying they would take up arms against the US.
Relatives and a neighbour of the men also spoke in the hearing, laying out how the brothers were brought to the United States illegally as boys from the former Yugoslavia as their parents sought a better life.
Michael Huff, a lawyer for Dritan Duka, said that becoming more involved in the Muslim faith turned them around. The men, all school dropouts, owned a pizza shop together and later a roofing company. Their father, Ferik Duka, told how they supported the family when he was injured in a car accident and were known for taking pizza to homeless people. -- AP
