By Raphael Tenthani and Hans Pienaar
Blantyre - Authorities in Malawi have confirmed that five suspected al-Qaeda operatives have been handed over to United States government agents.
This happened despite an order by the country's High Court that the suspects be released on bail.
The men were arrested in Blantyre over the weekend. After the legal detention period lapsed, Malawi High Court Justice Frank Kapanda ordered that they be released on bail.
But Malawi authorities now say the five have been handed over to US intelligence, and are out of the country.
Lawyers fear the suspects have been taken to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba, set up by President George Bush as part of his "war on terror".
Inmates there have fewer rights than combatants under the Geneva Convention. This means they can be held incommunicado and without legal representation on mere suspicion of terrorist activities.
A senior Malawian immigration official, who claimed he was with the group, told journalists by cellphone: "I'm not in Malawi at the moment. We are out of the country. They (the suspects) are not in the custody of Malawi, they are in American custody."
A spokesperson for Air Malawi said the US embassy had chartered one of the airline's planes on Tuesday afternoon. "The destination was Harare, from Blantyre," he said. An airport official said the five were on the plane when it left, along with US and Malawian officials.
Officials at the US embassy in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, could not be reached for comment. Earlier this week, embassy officials declined to confirm or deny US involvement.
In a brief session on Wednesday, attended by the five-men team of defence lawyers and a small group of the suspects' family members, Justice Kapanda said that because the statutory 48 hours for which the state can detain suspects had elapsed on Tuesday night, the suspects should be released on bail immediately.
Malawian director of public prosecutions Fahad Assani, who was ordered by the High Court to bring the suspects before court by Wednesday morning, confirmed that the five were no longer in Malawi government custody.
Malawi intelligence sources said the five had already been flown out of Malawi via Zimbabwe, but Assani could not confirm this.
Assani said he would formally regularise the way the suspects were handed over to the US Central Intelligence Agency by applying in the Supreme Court of Appeal to discharge the High Court injunction which initially restrained the government from deporting the suspects.
He said although Malawi authorities did not have any case against the suspects, the country had an obligation to help in the global fight against terrorism.