A criminal court Monday cleared eight Kuwaitis of plotting to bomb a key United States military base in the oil-rich nation, a lawyer for some of the men said.

They were also cleared of belonging to al Qaeda, lawyer Adil al-Abdulhadi told CNN by phone. He was defending five of them.

Judge Hisham Abdullah issued the verdict to acquit the defendants, six of whom are under arrest and two of whom were being tried in absentia, the lawyer said.

Five will be released from detention Monday, Abdulhadi said. The sixth is serving life sentence after being convicted of a separate attack on a U.S. military target in Kuwait in 2002, which killed one person.

The arrests were announced in August last year.

The defendants were charged with plotting to attack the U.S. military base at Arifjan, south of Kuwait City.

They categorically denied the charges and said their confessions were extracted through torture, their lawyer said.