Five men were found guilty of conspiring to attack an Army base in New Jersey. Prosecutors said the defendants planned to attack and kill U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in a bid to wage Islamist holy war (Jihad) against America.

After a trial that took eight weeks until conviction, the charges of attempted murder against the five defendants were dropped by prosecutors who said they are seeking life sentences for the conspirators. It took the jury six days of deliberations to reach the decision to convict the five men: three ethnic Albanian brothers — Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka — and Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar.

All the defendants are Muslim immigrants who lived in South Jersey or Philadelphia. The three brothers will receive their sentences on April 22, while the other two were scheduled for April 23 and April 25.

Prosecutors said the five men were inspired by al Qaeda in their planned act. On the other hand, the defendant’s attorneys argued that their clients had no real intention of attacking Fort Dix and killing U.S. soldiers. All they did was talk, inspired by militancy. The relatives of the defendants also expressed their discontent and argued that the verdicts were influenced by suspicion of Muslims since the September 11 al Qaeda attacks.

The three Albanian-born brothers were running a roofing business in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. As for the other two defendants, Serdar Tatar, 23, was born in Turkey and has been working as a convenience store clerk, while Mohamad Shnewer, 30, was born in Jordani and had been working as a taxi driver in Philadelphia.