Fort Dix Terror Defendant Squirming
NEWARK, Oct. 26— The defendant facing the least serious charges of six men in the Fort Dix terror plot case is expected to plead guilty on Wednesday, according to a lawyer in the case.
The lawyer for Agron Abdullahu told other defense lawyers involved in the case about the expected plea during a meeting on Friday, said Richard Sparaco, a lawyer for one of the five other defendants, Serdar Tatar.
The scope and terms of the plea deal were not disclosed, Mr. Sparaco said.
The expected plea was reported by KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia.
Mr. Abdullahu was charged with illegally supplying two others charged in the plot with weapons that were used at a shooting range in the Poconos. The weapons offenses can bring up to 10 years in prison.
A call seeking comment from Mr. Abdullahu’s lawyer, the federal public defender Richard Coughlin, was not immediately returned on Friday. At pretrial hearings, Mr. Coughlin had said he would seek a separate trial for Mr. Abdullahu.
A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office, Michael Drewniak, declined to comment.
Another lawyer in the case, Troy A. Archie, said Mr. Coughlin made a good decision.
“It’s the right result for his client. If I was in his shoes, that’s what I would want for my client,” said Mr. Archie, who is representing Eljvir Duka.
All six suspects had pleaded not guilty. A trial date was set in federal court in Camden for Jan. 15.
The authorities said the six scouted out East Coast military installations to find one to attack and settled on Fort Dix largely because Mr. Tatar knew his way around from delivering pizza to the base from his father’s restaurant.
Five of the men — the brothers Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka; Mohamed Ibrahim Shnewer; and Mr. Tatar — could face life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to murder military personnel.
The suspects, all in their 20s, were born overseas but have spent many years living in the southern New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia.
NYT
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Let’s see… you were OK with putting your life in danger possibly attacking Fort Dix but squirming over prison.
October 27th, 2007 at 11:02 amMust be the ham sandwiches there.
“The Fort Dix Six”???
Nah. I just call ‘em “The Six Dix”.
October 27th, 2007 at 11:59 pm