Two Muslim brothers were sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for a plot to kill soldiers on a U.S. Army base, which prosecutors said was inspired by the idea of holy war against the United States.

Dritan Duka, 30, and Eljvir Duka, 25, each were handed life sentences without the possibility of parole. A third suspect and brother, Shain, 28, was due to be sentenced later on Tuesday.

The three ran a roofing business in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and were among five foreign-born Muslims convicted in December of planning an armed attack at Fort Dix, about 40 miles (64 km) east of Philadelphia.

“The evidence was overwhelming as to the guilt of this defendant,” U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler said in sentencing Dritan Duka to life plus 30 years in prison.

“He showed not even the slightest bit of remorse for what he has done nor what he has put his beautiful children through,” the judge said. “There is no question in my mind that were he free, he would continue on this route. This is a very rare crime.”

Duka, an illegal immigrant who was wearing a green prison uniform and was shackled at his ankles and wrists, read aloud a statement in English in which he said he was innocent and that he was the victim of a conspiracy by the U.S. government.

The other two convicted men, Mohamad Shnewer, a Jordanian-born taxi driver from Philadelphia, and Serdar Tatar, a convenience store clerk born in Turkey, were slated to be sentenced on Wednesday.

During an eight-week trial, prosecutors called the men “radical Islamists” and said they discussed killing as many soldiers as possible in their planned attack, which was never carried out.

Prosecutors said the men planned to use a pizza-delivery pass to get on the Army base and open fire on soldiers.

The case was built with the help of two FBI informants, who infiltrated the group and recorded hundreds of hours of conversations. All five were arrested in May 2007 after Dritan and Shain Duka attempted to buy rifles from one of the informants.

Although the men made numerous damning statements on the recordings about wanting to kill soldiers, and repeatedly voiced their frustrations with the plight of Muslims overseas, defense attorneys argued that their clients never intended to carry out an attack. They described the defendants as alienated young men full of bluster, but incapable of taking action.

(Source: Philadelphia Inquirer / Reuters)