Alim Hassan, 31, was charged with murdering his pregnant wife, Marlyn Hassan, 30; her sister, Sharon Yassim 30; and their mother Bernadette Seajatan, 49, in a vicious rampage on July 30 last year in which the women received nearly 70 knife wounds, prosecutors said.

The stabbings allegedly took place after a quarrel over Marily Hassan’s refusal for their son to join a mosque to which suspected al Qaeda members belonged.

Hassan’s trial begins on July 15, according to the New Jersey Journal.

Hassan’s arraignment was postponed several times while he underwent psychological evaluation, but Thursday his attorneys Adam Jacobs and Michele Audbato said preliminary results of the testing have caused them to rule out claiming that Hassan was incompetent to stand trial.

Instead, the attorneys entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of their client, who sat silently in green prison garbs, his hands cuffed behind his back. The attorneys then asked for a 60-day adjournment to regroup, given the results of the evaluation, and Hudson County state Superior Court Judge Elaine Davis set July 15 for the start of the trial.

When Hudson County sheriff’s officers led Hassan into the courtroom yesterday, the eyes of seven of the slain women’s family members looked on him and followed him unblinking across the room.

Baldeo Seajatan lost his wife, two daughters and twin unborn grandchildren on July 30, 2002 and he said he does now how he managed to survive the loss and grief of the funeral-except by the strength of his hatred for Hassan.