CARACAS, Venezuela, (CMC) – A judge in Venezuela has ordered to release of five Trinidadian Muslims who were imprisoned for two years and seven months in a high security jail, on charges of suspicions of terrorist activities and espionage.

The men – Wade Charles, Dominic Pitilal, Asim Luqman, Andre Battersby and Leslie Daisley, who were held on March 19, 2014, were taken to court on Thursday and Friday before being released on Saturday.

“We are overwhelmed with joy. We just happy it’s all over,” said Petital.

However, the men remain at the Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia Nacional (SEBIN) jail – known as a jail for political dissidents – until they go through the immigration process.

Also detained in March 2014, were the wives of three of them men along with eight children and three Imams.

They were detained at the Plaza Hotel in Sabana Grande, Caracas where they were staying while awaiting visas to undertake an Umrah pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

The wives and the children were the first to be allowed to return to Trinidad, while the Imams were freed after 45 days.

At a press conference held Saturday, Head of the Islamic Front, Umar Abdullah asked that the nation welcome the men home.

“This is what you can expect of a Muslim community when they return home,” he said.

Abdullah also called on the government to put measures in place to make it easier for them to reintegrate back into society.

In August, Abdullah told reporters that Caracas appears to be finding ways to prevent the return of the men whom he said had travelled to Venezuela in search of visas to travel to Saudi Arabia.

He then called on the government to have a “greater sense of leadership” and urged officials to establish diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia to ensure that local Muslims will not have to travel to Caracas in search of visas to attend the Hajj, an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, and a mandatory religious duty for Muslims.