TORONTO — Several men detained without charges amid allegations they may pose a security threat have obtained a lawyer to sue over the way they've been treated, a lawyer for five of the men said Friday.

Tariq Shah said his clients are victims of an overzealous terrorist probe, known as Project Thread, that has damaged their reputations and ruined their personal lives.

To date, there have been no charges and no evidence to support suggestions that any of the 21 detainees - all but one of them from Pakistan - pose a security threat or have links to al-Qaida, said Shah.

"After having them in detention for so long, they are not laying any charges against them," complained Shah, who represents seven of the detainees, at least five of whom plan to sue.

"They have been tainted as terrorists and their faces have flashed all over the media. They will not be allowed to enter any country, so they are seeking an explanation and damages."

Shah said the case is being handled by Toronto lawyer Rocco Galati, whose high-profile clients include accused terrorist Mahmoud Jaballah, who was held in solitary confinement for more than two years without charge.

Immigration officials had ordered the men detained while police probed possible terrorist ties after a seven-month investigation that ended in August raids.

Police seized 25 boxes of evidence and 30 computers in the raids. In one apartment, they say they found airplane schematics and pictures of guns on the wall.

After nearly two months, nine of the 21 men have been released on bail while the rest remain in a maximum-security prison just outside Toronto.

At least four face removal orders and one man has voluntarily left the country after choosing to abandon his bid to stay in Canada.

Two Pakistani men linked to Project Thread, but not part of the group of 21, have been deported, including Mohammad Jahangir, who sparked the probe when he applied for a student visa to study at what turned out to be a defunct business school.

Although Immigration officials initially said the men might pose a threat to national security, they were ultimately deported only because they lied to get visas.

Of the four other men ordered to leave, none are deemed a security threat, said a review board spokeswoman.

"On all four of those cases, the evidence that Citizenship and Immigration Canada brought to us was on misrepresentation," said Melissa Anderson.

And none of the 12 men in detention are being held for security reasons, she said.

"We've heard no security grounds, so far," said Anderson.

"Most of the detention reviews have been on the basis of failure to appear. Neither in the admissibility hearings nor in the detention review processes has the minister . . . been arguing them on security grounds."

Shah said three of his clients remain in detention and have grown more despondent as time passes and former friends in the community forget about them.

"They are very upset," Shah said. "Some of the people, now they are realizing some of them do not have friends, their bail matters are coming up and . . . nobody is willing to provide bail for them."

Life has also been hard for those who have been released on bond, said Shah, noting one man's fiancee left him after the scandal.

"His engagement was off because of this reason," said Shah. "She refused to marry with him because now he is a tainted person."

Authorities allege the 21 men are connected to or obtained student permits from the Ottawa Business School, which sold fake registration letters allowing people to apply for visas.

Grounds cited for suspicion included the fact that one man took an unusually long time to obtain a commercial pilots' licence and his lessons took him directly over the Pickering nuclear plant near Toronto. Two other men allegedly associated with him were found before dawn outside the same power plant.

A spokeswoman for the Immigration Department maintained they had reasonable suspicion to launch the probe.

"We had a group of individuals who misrepresented themselves - who were unco-operative in trying to clear up some of the issues that we had, who used fraudulent documents and who had patterns of behaviour that gave us serious concern," said Giovanna Gatti.

Another round of detention review hearings are slated to be held in two weeks. Ten of the men have made refugee claims.