By PREDRAG MILIC • ASSOCIATED PRESS • August 5, 2008

PODGORICA, Montenegro — Four Michigan residents were among a group of ethnic Albanians convicted today of plotting a rebellion to carve out a homeland within the tiny Balkan republic of Montenegro.

The Americans of Montenegrin origin were part of a group arrested in September 2006 on the eve of a key parliamentary election in Montenegro, which had just become independent of Serbia. Authorities suspected them of planning attacks on institutions in a predominantly ethnic Albanian-populated eastern part of Montenegro with the aim of creating an autonomous region.

Three of the Americans, Sokol Ivanaj of Oakland County's West Bloomfield Township and cousins Kola Dedvukaj of Farmington Hills and Rrok Dedvukaj of Troy, had lived for decades in Michigan but were on a visit to Montenegro when apprehended. A fourth American, Doda Ljucaj, was suspected of being the mastermind behind the plot. He was born in Montenegro but lived in Wixom and was arrested in Vienna, Austria, later in 2006.

The court also convicted five other members of the same ethnic Albanian group of possessing illegal weapons. The 17 were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three months to 6 1/2 years, and the Americans received some of the toughest sentences.

"We are not happy with the verdicts. We will appeal," Kole Camaj, a defense lawyer for the group, told reporters outside the court.

Montenegro has a population of about 600,000, about 7% of them ethnic Albanians living mostly in an eastern border region near Albania. Unlike their fellow-ethnic Albanians in Serbia's Kosovo province, the Montenegrin Albanians have not formed a separatist movement or disputed Montenegrin government rule in the past.

The Americans were accused of helping to fund and arm the group with rifles, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Police said they recovered a stockpile of weapons during the arrest raid in 2006.

The 17 defendants initially were charged with terrorism, but the charges were later changed to those they were convicted of today. All the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

"I am not happy," said Katrina Dedvukaj, the sister of Rrok Dedvukaj. "We are not terrorists. This is my country."

The case has drawn international criticism of Montenegro over defendants' allegations that the police beat them during and after the arrest. Montenegrin authorities have rejected the accusations.

Montenegro became a sovereign state in 2006 when it ended its alliance with neighboring Serbia, another former Yugoslav republic. Serbia's much larger ethnic Albanian community, living in the southern province of Kosovo, took up arms in 1998 to fight for independence.

Montenegro has had mostly good relations with its ethnic Albanian minority, whose representatives have been included in successive governments in the tiny republic in southeastern Europe.