Before they were considered the country's premier example of homegrown terrorists, the three Duka brothers operated a business called National Roofing. Their advertisements featured the American flag and the slogan, "We roof America." They worked long hours and did jobs for free for the poor, their father said. Those are the men Ferik Duka talked about last week in federal court in Camden before each son - Dritan, Eljvir, and Shain - was given a life sentence."I told them who my sons are - hardworking people, good to the community, good to society," Duka said in an interview Friday at his Cherry Hill home. "Who did you nail? The people who build this country. You didn't nail terrorists, radicals."
All five men convicted in December of planning to attack Fort Dix were sentenced last week - four were given life terms - ending perhaps the government's highest-profile case of domestic terrorism. But afterward, relatives expressed no doubt that their loved ones are innocent. And many said they would continue to make their case.
"I'm not going to stop, even if I have to go to President Obama or the Congress just to see justice," Duka said. "If there is an investigation in this case, the truth will come out," added his fourth and youngest son, Burim.
Throughout the eight-week trial, which also ended with the convictions of Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar, opposing pictures of the defendants emerged. Prosecutors said the men were dangerous jihadists, training and planning for an armed attack on Fort Dix. The defense said they were alienated young men who had expressed some radical views but never intended to harm anyone. All five defendants also professed their innocence at their sentencings, some of them forcefully.
Some defense attorneys said that if their clients truly were radicals seeking martyrdom, they would have embraced the allegations, not denied them. Prosecutors were not moved by that argument. "They're more in the position of being . . . unsuccessful jihadists," acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra said. "I don't think any of us are surprised that they'd want to take back their words and actions."
The defense argued that both informants had goaded their clients into tough talk about jihad, and that the men had never formulated a plan to do anything. "This is war against Muslims," said Shnewer's father, Ibrahim. "If there is no Mahmoud Omar, there is no case. They sent the informant to innocent people." Attorneys for all five defendants filed notices last week that they would appeal.
This year, the Duka brothers said through their family that they wished to make their case to the media. Officials at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia denied a request to interview the Dukas, citing security concerns.
Ferik Duka said that it was difficult to be a Muslim after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and that many Muslim friends had been afraid to go to court and speak in his sons' behalf.
Some Muslim advocates and groups have rallied around the case. Mauri Saalakhan, who runs what he called the small grassroots Peace and Justice Foundation near Washington, traveled to the sentencing. "What we witnessed today in the name of a quote-unquote war on terrorism was an atrocity," he said after the Dukas were sentenced. "These young men were entrapped."
Project SALAM, a small organization that tracks prosecutions of Muslims, also learned of the case and held an event April 23 in West Philadelphia. Lynne Jackson, a volunteer for Project SALAM, said the Fort Dix case had followed a pattern she had seen around the country of informants entrapping Muslims in phony conspiracies. "It's like a witch-hunt that's going on," she said. "It's such a waste of resources, and it ruins families."
The Duka family also has reached out to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. An official there said it would monitor the appeals process.
Marra invited Muslims who have concerns about the case to reach out to him, but he said anyone who thinks the Fort Dix defendants are innocent are "ignoring the evidence."
The defenses were based largely on the same recordings that prosecutors used. While the tapes were heavy with talk of jihad, they were dotted with instances when the men backed away from their hard-line discussions. "We are going to end up in jail for 30 years, 40 years for doing nothing, just talking," Dritan Duka said in one recorded conversation. "By talking, you cannot hurt nobody," Ferik Duka said.
The sentencing judge noted that the Duka brothers had expressed no remorse. "What are we going to show remorse for? We did nothing wrong," Burim Duka said. "They apologized for the stupid things they said."
Ferik Duka noted that the judge had mentioned how expensive the case had been to bring to trial. "This is just to justify their expenses," he said. "I don't find that human, destroying somebody else's lives for the expenses."
He said the case had devastated his roofing business, and now he must support his daughters-in-law and the six children of Dritan and Eljvir. "Now I have to fight for my kitchen table. I have orphans to feed," he said. "They destroyed me. I'm in bad shape right now."