Posted on Fri, Jun. 22, 2007

Fort Dix suspect to remain in custody
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press Writer

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. --A man accused of supplying weapons for a plot to kill soldiers on Fort Dix will stay in jail as he awaits trial, a federal magistrate ruled Friday.

A lawyer for Agron Abdullahu argued that he should be released on bail because he faces a lesser charge than the other five men accused in the plot.

Abdullahu was charged with supplying weapons to illegal aliens, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. The others were charged with conspiring to kill military personnel, which is punishable by life in prison.

But U.S. Magistrate Joel Schneider said Abdullahu's public defender did not offer any new information in her argument.

Also, this week authorities said they had found an etching of an AK-47 shooting at the letters "FBI" in Abdullahu's cell as well as graffiti referring to the Kosovo Liberation Army.

"This newly acquired evidence buttresses the correctness of this court's decision," Schneider wrote in the opinion made public Friday.

Abdullahu, a 24-year-old baker, said in court last month that he would never hurt the country that took in his family of ethnic Albanians after they fled from war-town Kosovo in 1999.

His lawyer, Lisa Evans Lewis, did not return a call seeking comment Friday.

The trial is expected to begin in October.

http://www.charlotte.com/118/story/170015.html