The men, ages 18 to 24, pleaded not guilty. Judge Anwar Nazir, of Pakistan’s special antiterror court, said the evidentiary phase of the trial will begin March 31.
The judge accepted a recommendation from prosecutors to charge the men with using Pakistani soil for terror attacks against a friendly country and directing a person or an organization to commit terrorist activities, both of which carry potential life sentences; and with criminal conspiracy to commit terror attacks in Pakistan, attempting to use Pakistani soil for terror acts against a friendly country, using and possessing money or property for committing terrorism and inciting other people to commit terror activities, all of which carry sentences of up to seven years.
“We will try to get the maximum punishment and we have all the evidence’’ to do so, federal prosecutor Nadeem Akram Cheema said before the hearing. No prosecutors were available for comment after the hearing.
Attorneys for the men said the trial would take at least six months, although specialists note that even ordinary criminal trials in Pakistan are frequently delayed and can drag on for years. Because there are no jury trials in Pakistan, the trial will be held before a judge, in one of Pakistan’s antiterror courts, inside a sprawling prison in the dusty midland town of Sargodha, in central Punjab Province. Prosecutors could request that proceedings be kept secret.
The arrested men are Muslims from the Alexandria, Va., area who left the United States shortly after Thanksgiving without telling their parents, triggering an international missing persons case. They were arrested Dec. 8 at the family home of Khalid Farooq Chaudhry, the father of one of the men, Umar Chaudhry.
The arrests were made at a time of growing concern in the United States over home-grown terrorism, and US and Pakistani officials initially said the men probably would be deported back to northern Virginia, where they are under investigation by the FBI. But US law enforcement officials now say that although their inquiry will continue, no charges in an American court are imminent — and investigators are waiting to see how events play out in Pakistan.
Pakistani police and intelligence officials who have interrogated the five men have said they were in contact for months with a Taliban recruiter and were trying to join up with Al Qaeda. They were hoping to battle US troops in Afghanistan, the Pakistani officials said. The men’s family, friends, and spiritual advisers in northern Virginia have said they never saw any sign of radical activities or beliefs.
The men — Chaudhry, 24; Ramy Zamzam, 22; Ahmad A. Minni, 20; Waqar Khan, 22; and Aman Hassan Yemer, 18 — have told the Pakistani court that they neither sought nor established contact with extremist groups and traveled to the region only to help other Muslims.
They have also said they were being tortured in jail, and Zamzam told reporters before an earlier hearing that the men were jihadists, “not terrorists . . . and jihad is not terrorism.’’
Outside the courtroom yesterday, advocates for the five men said they are seeking an investigation of Pakistani intelligence agencies and police for allegedly torturing the men while they were being questioned.
Pakistani police officials have identified Zamzam, a Howard University dental student, as the ringleader of the five men, and sources familiar with the investigation have said he is the man in a video the men left behind in the United States. A prominent Muslim leader said the video had a disturbing farewell tone.
Khalid Chaudhry came to the courthouse yesterday but was barred from the hearing. He said he did not expect justice from “a court that doesn’t allow a father to attend the hearing.’’
Hasan Dastgir Katchela, an attorney for the five men, said that their cases are so intertwined the court will have to “either acquit all or convict all.’’
