Terror Suspects Tried to Kill Marshals in Courthouse, DOJ Says

Broward Sheriff’s Office via Sun Sentinel/MCT via Getty Images(NEW YORK) —  Two terrorism suspects distracted and then tried to murder two Deputy U.S. Marshals while inside a U.S. courthouse complex, according to the Department of Justice.

The men, brothers Raees and Sheheryar Qazi, were already facing terrorism charges when the DOJ says they “simultaneously motioned with their heads to cause the Deputy U.S. Marshals to look at the ceiling.”

“The Qazi brothers then simultaneously punched the Deputies in the face and struggled with them,” says the DOJ in a statement about the April 2014 incident. “Further, while struggling with the Deputy U.S. Marshals, the Qazi brothers attempted to use potentially lethal force on them while exclaiming ‘Allahu Akbar,’ an Arabic exhortation meaning ‘God is Great.'”

For their alleged troubles, the brothers Qazi were only rewarded with additional charges announced Thursday, including “attempting to murder a federal employee, a deputy United States Marshal.”

The Qazis are also accused of attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — the same group that has been linked to last week’s massacre at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The Qazis, naturalized U.S. citizens from Pakistan, were already facing terrorism-related charges — reportedly involving a plot by one of the brothers to set off a bomb in New York City.

The Qazis pleaded not guilty to their original charges in December 2012. A public defender who had represented Raees did not immediately return an off-hours call for comment.

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