(Xinhua) -- Two former Guantanamo prisoners on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist group were acquitted on Sunday in an Algerian criminal court, state APS news agency said.

The two men alleged that they were "brutally tortured" during their imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay, the report said.

According to the APS, the two accused went to Germany in the early 1990s when they were engaged in drug trafficking and theft before traveling to Afghanistan.

They were arrested in Pakistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and transferred to Guantanamo Bay where they were held without trial before being sent home to Algeria last year.

During the trial, both defendants admitted drug trafficking in Germany but denied being members in a terrorist group in Afghanistan, said the report.

The court in Algiers acquitted the two men, Faghoul Abdelli and Mohamed Terari, after rejected their prosecution argument of being members of a terrorist group, the agency said. ?