PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ten U.S. missionaries arrested trying to leave earthquake-crippled Haiti with a busload of children may be spending the weekend in jail despite a judge recommending their provisional release.

The prosecutor who got the case Thursday afternoon told The Associated Press he would respond to the judge by next week. All public offices are closed today, the quake's one-month anniversary that is a national day of mourning.

The recommendation by Judge Bernard Saint-Vil was the best news the Americans have had in the two weeks they've been held in a stuffy, grimy jail since being arrested.

Saint-Vil has the final word on whether to free them, but Prosecutor-General Josephe Mannes Louis first has a chance to raise objections. The judge told the AP on Thursday that he was accepting a request from defense attorneys to let the Americans go free while the probe continues.

It is unclear when the missionaries, most from an Idaho Baptist church group, might be released. It is also not clear whether they would be allowed to leave the country if the judge grants a provisional release.

Also unexplained is what bearing such a decision could have on whether the missionaries go to trial.

On Thursday, Saint-Vil privately questioned the last of a group of parents who said they willingly gave their children to the Baptist group.