Trial date set for Dix Six

The judge presiding over the case of six men accused of plotting an armed attack at Fort Dix set a tentative trial date of Oct. 9 during a hearing in federal district court in Camden yesterday.

U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler scheduled another hearing for Aug. 10 to "firm up" a trial date after one of the defense lawyers said the proposed trial date was "unrealistic."

Meanwhile, three of the defendants sent letters to Kugler and complained about their treatment at the Federal Detention Center. They said they weren't allowed to see their families and were limited to one 10-minute call per month.

One of the defendants, Mohamed Ibrahim Schnewer, complained in his letter that he was being "caged like an animal 24 hours a day."

Authorities say that five of the men plotted to assault the Fort Dix military installation with automatic weapons and to kill military personnel, and that a sixth man supplied them with weapons.

The men, described by the feds as "Islamist radicals," were arrested and charged in May before the plot was carried out.

If convicted, five of the alleged plotters - Schnewer; brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka; and Serdar Tartar - face up to eight years behind bars under federal sentencing guidelines. The brothers and Schnewer are from Cherry Hill, and Tartar is from Atlantic County

Agron Abdullahu, who lived in Northeast Philadelphia, and who is charged only with providing weapons to the others, faces less jail time.

The men are being held in a special housing unit at the Federal Detention Center, segregated from other prisoners. Defense attorneys said they were able to visit with the men but decried the lack of phone communication.

"The defendants should be able to call their lawyers whenever they want," Kugler said, who asked U.S. marshals to convey that to prison officials. *