SANTA ANA, Calif. – Eleven Muslim students charged with disrupting a speech by the Israeli ambassador at a California university sought Friday to have the district attorney pulled from the case.

Prosecutors illegally obtained search warrants and focused on the religion of the defendants by dubbing the case the “UCI Muslim case,” said Dan Mayfield, an attorney for one of the students at the University of California, Irvine.

“We are asking the attorney general of the state of California to step in and take over the case,” Mayfield said at a news conference after the students’ arraignment was postponed until April 15. The courtroom was packed with supporters.

Orange County Deputy District Attorney Dan Wagner said the allegations were not grounds to pull his office from the case.

The students are each charged with one count of misdemeanor conspiracy to disturb a meeting and one count of misdemeanor disturbance of a meeting.

The students were arrested on Feb. 8, 2010, after shouting in protest at a speech on U.S.-Israeli security, forcing Ambassador Michael Oren to halt his remarks for 20 minutes.

The case has stoked an intense debate about freedom of speech.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas filed the charges last month, prompting a public outcry by Muslim and civil rights advocates who say prosecutors were discriminating against students exercising their right to dissent, just as many other college students do without punishment.

Prosecutors contend the protest was a premeditated attempt to disrupt Oren’s lecture and infringed on the rights of the hundreds of people who had gathered on campus to hear him speak.

Eight of the students attended UC Irvine and three were from the nearby campus of the University of California, Riverside.

If convicted, they could face a sentence ranging from probation with community service and fines to up to six months in jail.