A court in the capital Bissau has suspended last week's presidential order to expel the Ahmadiyya Islamic group as "unconstitutional", the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, reported on Friday.

The ruling affirms that President Kumba Yala's 20 August order giving members of the moderate Islamic group 48 hours to leave as illegal and a threat to religious freedom, Lusa reported. The court's ruling is a direct result of an appeal by the Ahmadiyya. However, all of the Pakistani members of the Ahmadiyya have already been sent to Senegal although the order is still allowed to practice in Guinea-Bissau.

Yala had accused the group of causing "serious misunderstandings" within the Muslim community in Guinea-Bissa, which accounts for about half the country's population, Lusa reported.