BIDDEFORD (AP) — Attorneys for two Biddeford men charged with stabbing and using a brick to beat another man allege prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence and are asking that charges against their clients be dismissed.

Just days before 23-year-old Tamer Tilahun and 22-year-old Jonathan Dowd were scheduled to stand trial in November on attempted murder and other charges, their attorneys found they were never given audio recordings of witness interviews, including one in which the victim’s girlfriend described yelling racial insults at Tilahun, who is black.

The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/19SwkNy ) reported that defense attorneys allege the victim may have been the aggressor in the November 2011 fracas on the bridge that connects Biddeford and Saco.

They said in court Tuesday that prosecutors acted “maliciously.”

Authorities said the failure to hand over evidence was a simple mistake.