Five Americans on terror charges in Sargodha, Pakistan

The men were arrested on suspicion of trying to contact militant groups

Five young Americans held in Pakistan on suspicion of plotting attacks have been indicted on terrorism charges, their lawyer has said.

The five men, aged 18 to 25, denied the charges at a court in a jail in the eastern city of Sargodha.

They were arrested in the city in December on suspicion of trying to contact al-Qaeda-linked groups.

The five face life imprisonment if found guilty. Pakistan earlier barred their deportation to the US.

The men have claimed they were tortured in custody, and that US officials directed the abuse, but prison officials have denied the accusations.

The US embassy in Islamabad, which has also dismissed the allegations, confirmed that an American consular official attended Wednesday's hearing.

Journalists were not allowed in, but afterwards defence lawyer Shahid Kamal told journalists: "Charges have been laid against all the accused," reports AFP news agency.

"All these charges are terrorism related. The offences are punishable by life imprisonment. All the accused unanimously rejected them."

The five young Muslims disappeared from the US state of Virginia in November.

Their families reported them missing after finding a farewell video message, which is said to have shown scenes of war and calls for Muslims to be defended.

Prosecutors and police have alleged the men were plotting attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan and had sought links with extremists.

Officials say the men were planning to travel to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban.

But the accused have denied any links to al-Qaeda and insist they wanted to go to Afghanistan for charity work.

Two of them are Pakistani-Americans, while the remaining three are said to be of Eritrean, Ethiopian and Egyptian origin. All of them have US passports.

The next hearing is scheduled for 31 March, when prosecutors are expected to produce evidence.