New Charges in Fort Dix Case

01/16/2008

Associated Press | January 16, 2008


HADDONFIELD, New Jersey - Five foreign-born Muslims face new charges, including attempted murder, in a case where they stand accused of planning an attack on the U.S. military training base Fort Dix last year.

In a federal indictment handed up Tuesday in U.S. District Court, a grand jury said there was evidence that the men - three ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, a Jordanian and a Turk - tried to kill uniformed members of the military.

Greg Reinert, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, would not discuss why the new charges were added.

Lawyers for the men said they had expected more charges.

"If your client is innocent of the charges, it doesn't matter what he is charged with," said Michael Huff, lawyer for one of the men, Dritan Duka.

The men were arrested last May and charged with conspiracy to attack the military base. They deny the allegations.

The government has said the men had practiced firing weapons and arranged to buy guns to carry out an attack on the base. They did not carry out an actual raid.

A trial is now scheduled for March 24, but lawyers in the case expect it to be pushed back for reasons unrelated to the new charges.

In addition to the conspiracy charges all five face, brothers Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka were also charged with possession of weapons by illegal aliens. Under Tuesday's amended indictment, they and Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer were additionally charged with possession of a firearm for an illegal act. Serdar Tatar does not face weapons charges.

The indictment also says Shnewer conducted surveillance at McGuire Air Force Base besides several other military installations the government had already said he scouted, including Fort Dix and Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Richard Sparaco, lawyer for Serdar Tatar, had no immediate comment on the amended indictment. An after-hours message left for Michael E. Riley, lawyer for Shain Duka, was not immediately returned.