A Spanish judge has ordered the release of five Algerians arrested last week on suspicion of financing al-Qaida-linked terrorist activities in North Africa, saying there is no significant evidence to keep them in jail.

The judge said authorities have not shown the suspects sent significant amounts of money to Algeria, or that the recipients had links to terrorist activity. As part of his ruling, the judge ordered the five men to stay in Spain and to report to judicial authorities twice a month.

Spanish authorities have targeted the North Africa grouping known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in recent years because of its proximity to southern Spain and the rest of Europe. The organization declared allegiance to al-Qaida in 2006 and restated its allegiance to the terrorist organization in July, two months after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid in Pakistan.

Scores of suspected radical Islamists have been detained in Spain since the 2001 terror attacks on the United States and the al-Qaida-inspired 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded 1,800 others.