KABUL, Aug 23: Defence lawyers at the trial of three Americans charged with kidnapping and torturing prisoners in a freelance "war on terror" showed a video on Monday linking them with a senior Afghan official.

The video showed group leader Jonathan Idema meeting presidential candidate and former education minister Yunus Qanooni and discussing the future arrest of an education ministry official suspected of trying to assassinate Qanooni.

Idema, who is on trial with fellow US citizens Brent Bennett and Edward Caraballo, claims the group was working with the full knowledge of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to hunt down terrorist suspects. He says it foiled plots to assassinate senior government leaders and US troops.

They were arrested in July for allegedly running a private prison and counter-terrorism operation in Kabul. The trio could face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.

Last week Idema accused the US Federal Bureau of Investigation of withholding evidence which he said proved their links to US authorities. The hearing was dramatically halted last week when the FBI returned seized evidence to Afghan authorities.

Judge Abdul Baset Bahktiari then ordered a week's adjournment to allow the Americans and four Afghans charged as accomplices time to study it. Caraballo's lawyer Michael Skibbie said the hundreds of pages of documents, photographs and videos were tampered with during the 20 days they were in the FBI hands.

"We believe there has been damage done to the evidence. An important conversation with an FBI official could not be located. A portion of one of tapes that we did review appears to have been erased," Skibbie said. Judge Bakhtiari ordered a week's adjournment to allow time for Bennett's lawyer to arrive in Afghanistan and prepare a defence. -AFP