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Fort Dix plot trial lost in translation

CAMDEN, N.J. — A judge is adamant the trial of six men accused of plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix take place this year so the high-profile case can be resolved and the suspects, if they are not guilty, can get on with their lives.

The lawyers for the men say they cannot move so fast. The reason: The government’s voluminous evidence, much of which must be translated from Arabic and Albanian.

In court Friday, U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler pushed back the start date of the trial from Oct. 9 to Nov. 5 and told defense lawyers he would authorize spending for more translators.

Defense lawyers had asked that the trial be delayed until at least May 2008.

The six men — all foreign-born and in their 20s — were arrested in May and accused of plotting a raid on the New Jersey military installation.

The attack never happened, but the prospect of suburbanites engaging in terrorism was shocking.

Five of the men — the brothers Dritan, Shain and Eljvir Duka; Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, and Serdar Tatar — face life in prison if they are convicted of conspiracy to murder military personnel.

The sixth, Agron Abdullahu, is charged with weapons offenses punishable by 10 years in prison. His lawyer said he would move to have Abdullahu tried separately.

Court filings have revealed that the government has about 200 hours of tapes of conversations involving the suspects and two government informants. About half are in English, with 40 hours in Albanian and 60 in Arabic. Some conversations use multiple languages.

Prosecutors say only about 20 hours of the recordings are likely to be introduced at a trial.

But the defense lawyers say they and their clients need to know who says what on every minute of every recording.

Lawyers say the sound quality — with some exceptions — is better than it usually is on investigative tapes. But that doesn’t mean what is said is clear to the lawyers.

“It’s one thing to hear the discussions,” said Michael Huff, the lawyer for Dritan Duka. “It’s another to understand it.”

Kugler suggested the clients help. “Who better to tell you what’s spoken?” he asked.

The lawyers said their clients should hear the tapes, but that it shouldn’t be up to them to decide what’s important.

Furthermore, not all of them know all the languages involved. Tatar, for instance, speaks English and Turkish but not Albanian or Arabic.

But his lawyer, Richard Sparaco, said he needs to know about not only conversations involving Tatar — but also those in which other players in the case talk about him.

The defense lawyers said there’s another problem: At the federal detention center in Philadelphia, where the men have been held since they were arrested, they can now listen to the recordings only with their lawyers.

There have been efforts to get equipment so they can listen on their own, but the hours and equipment are limited.

Kugler said he would get more machines to move the preparations more quickly.

Kugler has issued strict orders to the suspects and their families not to try to communicate during court proceedings. He made an exception Friday, allowing Eljvir Duka to stand several feet from his wife for a moment so he could see his 18-day-old daughter, Fatima, for the first time.