Ferik Duka said last week that he had brought his family to the United States nearly 25 years ago for a better life.

Once, he thought he had found it.

Now, he and his wife, Zurata, sit in a federal courtroom in Camden each day watching and listening as their three oldest children, sons Dritan, 29, Shain, 27, and Eljvir, 25, stand trial on allegations that they plotted a jihad-inspired attack on Fort Dix.

The charges, Ferik Duka said, are ridiculous; his sons are not guilty.

"I'm confident in the American justice system," he said. "My sons are innocent."

So he sits in the fourth-floor courtroom, dressed in a sports coat over either a shirt and tie or a turtleneck, his thick arms folded in front of him, watching the system work.

His wife, wearing a head scarf, is always by his side. Occasionally other family members - a son and daughter born in the United States, a daughter-in-law, grandchildren - attend the sessions.

When the defendants enter the courtroom, the relatives smile and nod. When court ends promptly at 4:30 p.m. each day, they wait for the jury to exit, then exchange nods, smiles and waves again as the Duka brothers and their codefendants, Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar, are led away by U.S. marshals.

All five have been held without bail since their arrests in May 2007. All five are foreign-born Muslims who were raised in the Cherry Hill area. Eljvir Duka is married to one of Shnewer's sisters.

All face life in prison if convicted.

Ferik Duka, 61, shook his head at that prospect and then talked about better times.

Standing on the steps of the federal courthouse on Market Street one morning during a break in the trial, the burly roofing contractor lit a cigarette and told the story of his coming to America.

In many ways, it is the story of millions of other immigrants who have come looking for something better.

"I came . . . because we heard a lot of good things," he said. "Freedom of speech, democracy, opportunity. And it was true. I chose America because of those things."

His sons were 5, 3 1/2 and 18 months old.

"I bring them here to build a better life," he said.

It was 1984.

He had left Yugoslavia, where, he said, there was little work and less opportunity, especially for ethnic Albanians like himself.

He and his wife fled to Italy and were trying to decide where to go next. They chose America, entering illegally through Mexico. They stopped in Texas, then Brooklyn, N.Y., before settling in Cherry Hill, the quintessential American suburb.