TORONTO, Aug 28: One of the 19 Muslims under investigation by Canadian authorities for terrorist links was granted bail on Wednesday as community leaders and defence lawyers describe police charges against arrested persons as “vague and baseless”.

At an immigration detention review here on Wednesday morning, adjudicator Aina Martens allowed 30-year-old Mohammad Akhtar to be released on bail. “If we were discussing a group of people and if there were any information to conclude there was reason for security concerns, I would conclude a reasonable suspicion of these persons also,” Martens said. “At this point, nothing has ever been proven about anybody arrested.”

Akhtar, who came to Canada from Pakistan in 1999 to study, was to be released on Thursday.

Government lawyers have suggested that some of the arrested men are Al Qaeda agents, but admit their investigation is still in its infancy. “I guess the easiest way of putting it is there is a suggestion they might in fact be perhaps a sleeper cell for Al Qaeda,” one government lawyer was quoted as saying at a detention review.

The police cases have outraged Toronto Muslims, who have denounced them as racial profiling. “The allegations are vague,” said Arif Raza, a lawyer, who is trying to co-ordinate efforts to bring together defence teams. “The police have made a very weak case. I wouldn’t even call it an evidence,” he said.

“If these men have violated the Immigration Act, they should be tried in open court, but this is mischievous,” said Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress.