Families of some of the 346 people killed in crashes of Boeing 737 Max jetliners held photos of their dead loved ones Wednesday outside a federal court in Texas, where a judge heard arguments on the U.S. government's motion to dismiss its criminal case against the aerospace company in connection with the twin disasters.

U.S. District Chief Judge Reed O’Connor set aside time for the relatives to speak during the hearing, which lasted about three hours. Some traveled from countries in Europe and Africa to pursue what might have been their final opportunity to demand that the company face prosecution for the crashes off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia.

Boeing is charged with conspiracy to defraud the government, a felony. Prosecutors alleged the company deceived Federal Aviation Administration regulators about a flight-control system that was later implicated in the fatal flights, which happened less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019.

The judge said he would issue his decision on dismissal motion at a later date.

Wednesday's hearing in Fort Worth came more than four years after the Justice Department announced it had charged Boeing and reached a $2.5 billion settlement with the aircraft maker. That deal would have protected Boeing from criminal prosecution if it strengthened its ethics and legal compliance programs, but prosecutors revived the charge last year after deciding the company had violated certain terms of the agreement.