PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ The Haitian judge deciding whether 10 U.S. missionaries should face trial for trying to take a busload of children out of the country says the Americans should be released from jail while the investigation continues.

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil has the final word on whether to free the missionaries, though he gave the prosecutor-general the opportunity to raise objections.

It’s unclear when the missionaries, most from an Idaho Baptist church group, might be released, and Saint-Vil said it was too early to say whether they would be able to leave Haiti if granted provisional freedom. It’s also unclear what bearing releasing the missionaries might have on whether they go to trial.

Idaho Pastor Clint Henry, reading a statement on behalf of the detainees’ families, said they continue to pray, “believing that in the coming hours we will receive the news that we’ve waited for.”