PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – A judge denied bail Monday for three suspects accused of plotting to bomb New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, ordering them to remain in jail until a hearing on a U.S. request for their extradition.

The three men – Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur – smiled and waved to about 20 supporters and family members in the courtroom but did not speak. A son of Kadir said FBI agents had questioned relatives over the weekend.

Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicols said he was denying bail “given the nature and the seriousness of the offense,” and ordered them to remain in jail until an Aug. 2 hearing on a U.S. extradition request.

The suspects, arrested this month in the twin-island Caribbean nation, are accused of participating in a Muslim terror cell that planned to blow up a major airline jet fuel artery that runs through residential neighborhoods and principally supplies Kennedy airport.

The alleged mastermind of the plot, U.S. citizen Russell Defreitas, 63, is a Guyana native who worked as a cargo handler at the airport until 1995. He is in custody in New York.

Relatives and acquaintances of the suspects have expressed skepticism that they would be capable of organizing an international plot.

“We know that the allegations are all fabricated,” said Talibah Ali, a member of the mosque where Ibrahim holds a position as a Shiite cleric.

But Israel Khan, one of the attorneys who represented the U.S. government at the bail hearing, said, “You cannot look at a person and say that he looks like a terrorist or not. They come in all fashions.”

“There is evidence of conversations of them plotting to carry out this offense,” he added.

Associated Press writer Bert Wilkinson contributed to this report from Georgetown, Guyana