NEW YORK, Jan 23: Six Muslim immigrants who were arrested by US law enforcement authorities following 9/11 attacks and deported are coming back to give depositions in their federal lawsuits against top government officials and detention guards, the New York Times said on Monday.

The six were never accused of a crime related to 9/11; officials eventually cleared all of them of links to terrorism, the newspaper said.

A report by the inspector general of the Justice Department found systemic problems with immigrant detentions and widespread abuse at the federal detention center where the six had been held; several guards have since been disciplined.

But as the six return to the city - four of them from Egypt, one from Pakistan, one from Britain - the conditions imposed by the United States government include the requirement that they be in the constant custody of federal marshals.

They are barred from calling anyone during their week-long stays in an undisclosed New York hotel. They can expect hours of questioning by lawyers representing 31 defendants in the lawsuits.

The first returning detainees, Yasser and Hany Ibrahim, who are brothers, say that putting themselves back in the hands of the government they are suing is an act of faith in America.