Alleged terrorists sent out of the country

Five men who were arrested in Malawi for alleged links to global terrorism have left the country, in spite of a court order barring their deportation.

"They are already out of the country," Fahad Assani, Malawi's director of public prosecutions told IRIN on Wednesday. "They are in US custody."

He said the five were "neither deported nor extradited".

The five were arrested on Sunday in the southern city of Blantyre on the grounds of being an alleged threat to national security and were initially taken to the Blantyre police station, their lawyer Shabir Latif said. On Tuesday a Blantyre High Court judge ordered that they either be charged or released on bail by 10:00 pm that evening.

By Wednesday afernoon, Latif said he did not know where his clients were, and if they had left the country, the court had not been informed.

"We have not spoken to them and we have not been given access. We don't know where they are."

He was speaking after a court hearing where the state was attempting to overturn the deportation ban and release order.

"If they have left the country then someone needs to explain to the court why its order has not been complied with," he said. "If somebody is detained they are entitled to certain rights."

Two of the five men headed charitable organisations and a third was a teacher at a Muslim school. According to the Central Intelligence Agency's website, the US government has included an investigation of charitable organisations as part of its campaign against global terror.