“We haven’t found anything that could suggest wrongdoing on the part of the Americans,” the investigative judge, Bernard Sainvil, told Reuters.

“I think they could be released this week,” he added.

“The case will be over this week because we have no criminal grounds to pursue it,” said Sainvil, who spoke after questioning the two Americans, Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter, in a Port-au-Prince courtroom.

Sainvil, who visited the neighboring Dominican Republic as part of his investigation into Silsby and Coulter, gave no further details but said no further hearings would be held in the case.

Ten Americans, most of whom are members of a Baptist church in Idaho, were arrested last month on charges that they tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the country without proper documentation after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti.

Eight were released Wednesday, but Silsby, the group leader, and Coulter, her assistant, were held in detention for further questioning.

“Thank you for helping to reveal the truth,” Silsby told the judge, as she was escorted out of the courtroom.

Silsby and other members of the group of missionaries have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying they only wanted to help orphans left destitute by the quake.

But they had no Haitian identity or exit papers for the children. Many had living parents who acknowledged turning the children over to the missionaries in the belief they would have better care in the hands of the Americans.