NEW YORK (WABC) --
The husband of one of the women arrested in a terror plot in Queens says that he's at a loss for words.The Imam at their mosque is supporting the women and says that they're good people.
"There were no signs of someone being radical," said Charles Aziz Bilal, the defendants' Imam.
No radicalization, just false allegations according to the Imam at the Mosque in Jamaica where 28-year-old Noelle Valentzas and her friend, 31-year-old Assia Siddiqui had worshipped for the past five years.
Friday, their Imam invited cameras in during worship and staunchly denied the recent terror allegations.
"Do you have reason to believe they're false," Eyewitness News asked.
"Under no uncertain terms they're false," Bilal said.
Thursday, the two women were charged in Brooklyn Federal court with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, a federal complaint alleging they were studying past attacks, and that they acquired four propane tanks and materials such as fertilizer and a pressure cooker, they allegedly reached out to Al Qaeda and watched video of ISIS beheadings.
"My observation of the family was they had impeccable character," Bilal said.
"What do you suppose the propane tanks were for?" Eyewitness News asked.
"When you go to picnics, it's blown out of proportion," Bilal said.
Ms. Valentzas' husband was among those praying in the mosque. Eyewitness News repeatedly tried to ask him about the case after he left.
"She's a beautiful woman, very kind," he said.
"I can't say anything else. It had to be a set-up, what else could it be?" Bilal said.
Thursday, the women were held without bail after a brief court appearance where they spoke only to say they understood the charges against them. Velentzas wore a hijab and a dark dress, and Siddiqui had on a green T-shirt with a long-sleeved black shirt underneath and a dark long skirt.
"My client will enter a plea of not guilty, if and when there is an indictment. I know it's a serious case but we're going to fight it out in court," said Siddiqui's lawyer, Thomas Dunn. Velentzas' attorney had no comment.
The complaint cites a poem written by Siddiqui that appeared in a magazine published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula that declared there is "no excuse to sit back and wait - for the skies rain martyrdom," investigators wrote in court papers. Velentzas called bin Laden one of her heroes, and said she and Siddiqui were "citizens of the Islamic State," they said.
According to the complaint, the women "researched and acquired some of the components of a car bomb, like the one used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; a fertilizer bomb, like the one used in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City; and a pressure cooker bomb, like the one used in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing," authorities wrote.
After two New York City police officers were gunned down in a patrol car in December, Velentzas told the undercover officer that the deaths showed it was easy to kill a police officer, according to the complaint. After the undercover officer mentioned that 25,000 officers had turned out for the first of the funerals for the two officers, Velentzas "complimented" the officer for coming up with an attractive target and considered whether the other funeral was an appropriate target, it added.
The complaints suggests that authorities decided to make the arrests after Siddiqui came into "possession of multiple propane gas tanks, as well as instructions for how to transform propane tanks into explosive devices," and told the undercover she was "disinclined" to talk about her plans.
"It is very, very important to note: there was never any imminent threat to our fellow New Yorkers," Mayor Bill de Blasio said when asked about the case. The plot, he added, "was undercut before it could turn into something dangerous."
Neighbors of Siddiqui said she and her brother lived in the basement of a red-brick three floor house, owned by their parents, who didn't live there.
"She was quiet, and I never thought she could do this," said Mohammad Shahidul Haque, a retired hospital lab tech.
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