PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - A Haitian judge has decided to release 10 U.S. missionaries accused of kidnapping 33 children and trying to spirit them out of the earthquake- stricken country, a judicial source said on Wednesday.

The source said the missionaries, who have been in jail since they were stopped at Haiti’s border with the Dominican Republic on January 29, could be released as early as Thursday.

“The order will be to release them,” the source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. The decision has not yet been made public.