Five convicted of conspiracy in US

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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The five, who lived in and around Philadelphia for years, were found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel. But they were acquitted of attempted murder, after prosecutors acknowledged the men were probably months away from an attack on Fort Dix and did not necessarily have a specific plan. Four defendants were also convicted of weapons charges, according to The Associated Press. The federal jury deliberated for 38 hours over six days.

Serpil Tatar, sister of defendant Serdar Tatar, called the conviction "a big lie" that had undermined her faith in the United States, reported Reuters. She denied her brother was a terrorist, saying: "My brother was crying for the people who died on Sept. 11."

Convicted were: Tatar, Turkish-born convenience store clerk; Mohamad Shnewer, a Jordanian-born cab driver and brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka, ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, who had a roofing business. A sixth man arrested and charged only with firearms offenses pleaded guilty earlier.

The government said after the arrests in 2007 that case underscored the dangers of terrorist plots hatched on U.S. soil. Although investigators said the conspirators were inspired by Osama bin Laden, they were not accused of any ties to foreign terror groups. Lawyers argued that the alleged plot was all talk - that the men weren't seriously planning anything and that they were manipulated and goaded by two paid FBI informants.

"These criminals had the capacity and had done preparations to do serious and grievous harm to members of our military," Ralph Marra, the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said after the verdict.

’Acting stupid’
But some Muslim leaders in New Jersey disputed that.

"I don't think they actually mean to do anything," said Mohamed Younes, president of the American Muslim Union. "I think they were acting stupid, like they thought the whole thing was a joke."

Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said: "Many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment. From what I saw, there was a significant role played by the government informant."

According to prosecutors, the group chose the Army post at Fort Dix because Turkish-born Tatar was familiar with it. His father's pizza shop delivered to the New Jersey base, which is 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Philadelphia and used primarily to train reservists for duty in Iraq.