LOS ANGLES, Dec 9: The US Federal prosecutors filed immigration fraud charges on Friday against two Pakistani students who were held for questioning after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.

A federal magistrate unsealed the charges, originally lodged on Nov 5 by federal prosecutors, one day after an immigration judge ruled on Thursday that the students would not be deported if they left the country voluntarily by Dec 21.

The filing of the charges overrides the immigration judge’s decision, meaning the students cannot leave the US until the criminal case is concluded. Attorneys for the two students, Ahmed Atta and Salman Hyder, who remain in custody, said the government was trying to pressure their clients into providing information that they don’t have any knowledge regarding the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The court documents unsealed in Los Angeles federal court on Friday say the two 19-year-olds, who had lived in Fountain Valley, have been charged with visa fraud. In particular, they are charged with making false statements in order to get jobs in Orange County — something they were not eligible to do under their student visas. The charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

The government also filed similar charges against a third Pakistani man, Salman Hamid Khan, who is being held after apparently coming to federal attention after his phone number was discovered on the phone records of Atta or Hyder.

US Magistrate Stephen Hillman held a brief arrangement for the three and ordered them held without bail pending a hearing on Tuesday.

The charges against Atta and Hyder mention nothing about terrorism. However, the two men, who were originally taken into custody on Oct 8, were questioned five times by FBI agents before they obtained legal representation on Nov 1, according to Carrye Washington, one of their attorneys.

Washington said the men, and friends of theirs, had been questioned about terrorism. Atta has the same last name as Mohammed Atta, who is believed to have piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center. Atta who piloted that plane was from Egypt, not Pakistan.

Ahmed Atta also has been questioned about why he went to Saudi Arabia shortly before the terrorist attacks and returned shortly after, Washington said.

She said her client had gone there to renew a visa. Atta told the FBI that he knew nothing about the Sept 11 attacks nor the people involved in them, she said.

Los Angeles attorney Guillermo Suarez, Washington’s co-counsel, told Los Angeles Times that, until Thursday night, “I had this Pollyannaish attitude” that Atta and Hyder were merely facing “a minor INS charge” of failing to attend classes full time while in the US on a student visa.