BUFFALO, Sept 21: The six US citizens of Yemeni descent alleged to be members of an Al Qaeda cell will have to wait at least a week to learn whether they will be granted bail, although lawyers for the defendants argued that the government had not shown cause to detain them.

US Magistrate H. Kenneth Schroeder, concluding three days of hearings on the bail issue, told a packed court room at the US Court House that he was unlikely to make a decision before Oct. 1.

The men — Mukhtar al-Bakri, 22; Yasein Taher, 24; Faysal Galab, 26; Sahim Alwan, 29; Yahya Goba, 25 and Shafal Mosed, 24 — who all lived near one another in Lackawanna, New York, and have been charged with providing material support to Al Qaeda, will remain in custody in the meantime.

“I want to minimize as much as possible the temporary detention,” said Schroeder.

Government lawyers had argued that the defendants must stay in jail to ensure public safety.

“The government and the American public just can’t afford to let crime on the scale of Al Qaeda ever happen again,” Assistant US Attorney William Hochul said, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks which the United States blames on the militant network led by Osama bin Laden.—Reuters