JOHANNESBURG  Five Americans  two doctors, two nurses and an organizer  who carried donated AIDS drugs to Zimbabwe for distribution to the poor were arrested Thursday and remained jailed in Harare on Saturday on a charge of dispensing the medicine without the supervision of a pharmacist or proper licenses, their lawyer said.

The Americans, who are being held in smelly, poorly ventilated cells at Harare Central police station, were to have appeared in court on Saturday for a bail hearing, but the police said they had not finished the paperwork, said the lawyer, Jonathan Samukange. The Americans are expected to appear before a magistrate on Monday.

A Zimbabwean doctor working with them was also arrested on related charges.

The state-run newspaper, The Herald, on Saturday quoted a spokesman for the criminal investigations department, Detective Inspector Augustin Zimbili, confirming the arrests and the charges.

The Americans belong to the Allen Temple Baptist Church AIDS Ministry in Oakland, Calif. The church serves a predominantly African-American congregation. Three or four times a year since 2000, members have paid their own way to Zimbabwe to give antiretroviral medicine, vitamins, clothing and food baskets to impoverished people with AIDS.