ST. THOMAS - A magistrate judge has denied bail to the three Salvadoran men suspected of sexually tormenting two teenagers aboard a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship, ruling the defendants are flight risks because they are citizens of a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Magistrate Judge Geoffrey Barnard ordered the defendants - 22-year-old Alexander Nabih Kanawati, 22-year-old Andrew Parker Wein and 26-year-old Javier Miguel Westerhausen - remain in jail while awaiting trial on charges of assault with intent to commit rape and simple assault.

The three men have been accused of forcing a 17-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl to have sex in front of them on the high seas. The teens said the three took pictures, and Westerhausen and Kanawati both sexually touched the girl, soon after Norwegian's Dawn left the British Virgin Islands on March 16.

The case has generated interest in El Salvador and among Salvadoran immigrants living in America because the three defendants come from prominent families.

Wein's father, Rodolfo Antonio Parker Soto, is a prominent lawyer and vice president of El Salvador's legislative assembly who once ran for president as leader of the Christian Democratic Party.

On March 26, Soto said he would put up $100,000 in cash as a bail bond and take personal responsibility for ensuring that his son appeared in the Virgin Islands for every court proceeding, if Barnard allowed his son to return to El Salvador and continue his studies in law school.

On behalf of Westerhausen, a relative who owns a large construction company in Puerto Rico said he would act as a third-party custodian. Jose Perez told Barnard he would post any bail necessary and employ Westerhausen while the 26-year-old awaited trial.

At the same hearing, the mother and sister of Kanawati implored Barnard to release the 22-year-old, who holds U.S. citizenship, on an unsecured bond.

In his written opinion, filed Monday, Barnard noted the defendants all presented "viable" third-party custodians.

But because the United States has not entered into an extradition treaty with their native country, Barnard found there was no set of conditions that could ensure the defendants would return to St. Thomas for trial.

Attorneys on both sides agreed the charges expose each man to a prison sentence between 15 and 21 months.

FBI agents arrested the Salvadoran men when the Dawn docked in Havensight on March 20.

The teenagers had reported to their parents, then ship security, that the defendants forced them into Kanawati's cabin, where they intimidated them into drinking tequila and having sex with each other, according to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Jackson Purkey.

The teens said they felt they had no choice but to comply with the men's demands.

The ordeal ended when Kanawati grabbed the girl and tried to take her into the bathroom. The boy demanded he stop, warning him what he was doing was rape, according to Purkey's affidavit.

- Contact Joseph Tsidulko at 774-8772 ext. 332 or e-mail jtsidulko@dailynews.vi.