OAKLAND, Calif. -- Attorneys for three Bay Area animal rights activists who are charged with terrorizing companies and individuals who use animals for research said today that they think the prosecution's case is weak.

After the activists made a brief appearance in federal court in Oakland to formalize their legal representation, Mark Vermeulen, who represents Kevin Kjonas, 26, of Pinole, said the government's indictment "is as broad and unspecific as any indictment I've seen in years."

Kjonas is the former president of a Princeton, New Jersey, group called Stop Huntingdon Life Sciences USA was founded in 2000 to protest the work of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a British company providing laboratory services, including animal testing, to companies around the world, including Emeryville-based biotech firm Chiron Corp.

Joining Kjonas in court today were Lauren Gazzola, 25, the group's former campaign manager, and Jacob Conroy, 28, who also is affiliated with SHAC USA. All three were arrested at a Pinole residence on Wednesday and are free on $50,000 bail.

A federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted SHAC USA as a group as well as seven individuals around the country, including Kjonas, Gazzola and Conroy. Of the others who were indicted, one lives in the Seattle area, one is in New York state and two are in New Jersey.

The indictment charges all seven defendants with one count of animal enterprise terrorism. Kjonas, Gazzola and Conroy, as well as SHAC USA, also are charged with four counts of conspiracy to engage in interstate stalking.

The U.S. Attorney's office New Jersey is prosecuting the case and all the defendants will eventually have to appear in federal court there.

Andrea Lindsay, who said she's a spokesperson for the campaign against Huntingdon and a supporter of SHAC USA, said, "The indictment fails to pin one criminal act on any of these defendants."

She said, "The indictments against these animal protection activists are nothing more than a clear attack on free speech and SHAC USA will be as rigorous in its defense as it has been in its opposition to animal cruelty."

But Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey, said, "These folks are known to have had an ongoing involvement with this organization (SHAC USA) and it espoused extreme forms of activism, including violence and encouraging others to participate in violence."

He said the indictment "does indeed connect them to violence."

Lindsay, who spoke to reporters outside federal court in Oakland today, said SHAC USA's web site merely reports actions taken by other animal rights activists.

But Drewniak said, "Their Web site doesn't just report -- it incites harassment, intimidation and violence against individuals associated with Huntingdon."

He said, "It defies logic to say they merely report things."

Kjonas, Gazzola and Conroy are scheduled to return to federal court in Oakland on June 9 for an "identity hearing" to confirm that they are the people named in the indictment. They are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in New Jersey on June 15.

Chiron suffered two bombings last Aug. 28 that have been blamed on animal rights activists, but the indictment doesn't charge the seven defendants or SHAC USA with any involvement in that incident.

The FBI says that the prime suspect in the Chiron incident and a subsequent bombing at Shaklee Crop. in Pleasanton, which makes health and beauty products, is still 26-year-old Daniel Andreas San Diego of Sonoma, who was indicted last Oct. 9 but remains at large.