Post by Queen of the Damned on Feb 4, 2010 18:06:29 GMT -5
Haiti charges U.S. church members with kidnap
Case of 10 missionaries sent to a judge to determine group’s fate
NBC News and news services
updated 5:44 p.m. ET, Thurs., Feb. 4, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE - Ten U.S. missionaries in Haiti were charged Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association for allegedly trying to take children illegally out of the earthquake-hit country.
After announcing the charges, Haitian Deputy Prosecutor Jean Ferge Joseph told the 10 their case was being sent to an investigative judge.
"That judge can free you but he can also continue to hold you for further proceedings," the deputy prosecutor told the five men and five women in a hearing.
As the decision was announced, the Americans, most of whom belong to an Idaho-based Baptist church, appeared stunned, and some shook their heads in disbelief.
They were arrested last week on Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic when they tried to cross with a busload of 33 children they said were orphaned by the devastating Jan. 12 quake.
The Americans, who range in age from 18 to 55, acknowledged under questioning from the prosecutor they had apparently committed a crime by seeking to take the children across the border without proper documents. But they said they were unaware of that until after their arrest.
"We didn't know what we were doing was illegal. We did not have any intention to violate the law. But now we understand it's a crime," said Paul Robert Thompson, a pastor who led the group in prayer during a break in the session.
'Help the children'
Group leader Laura Silsby told the hearing: "We simply wanted to help the children. We petition the court not only for our freedom but also for our ability to continue to help."
Most of the Americans, who have been in jail since last Friday, were covered with severe mosquito bites. The prosecutor asked them at one point if they wanted to see a doctor.
After the hearing, they were whisked away to jail in Port-au-Prince. Silsby waved and smiled faintly to reporters but declined to answer questions.
Haitian authorities said the group lacked the authorization and travel documents needed to take the children out of the country.
The group's lawyer, Edwin Coq, who attended Thursday's hearing, said the church members face three to nine years in prison if they are found guilty at trial. Under Haiti's legal system, there won't be an open trial, but a judge will consider the evidence and could render a verdict in about three months, he said.
"We're not 100 percent sure if they will find them guilty. I don't think they will, I don't think there will be a charge," Coq said.
Earlier, Coq said that nine of his 10 clients were “completely innocent,” but added that “if the judiciary were to keep one, it could be the leader of the group.” He appeared to be referring to Silsby, who helped organize the mission to Haiti and has spoken for the Americans since they were detained last Friday.
'Other legal avenues'
Silsby has said the church members were trying to take orphans and abandoned children to an orphanage in the neighboring Dominican Republic. She acknowledged they may have lacked paperwork but said they just meant to help victims of the quake.
Haitian officials say many of the 33 still had parents, though they may have handed over the children willingly.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington the U.S. was monitoring the case and was open to discuss "other legal avenues" for the defendants — an apparent reference to the Haitian prime minister's earlier suggestion that Haiti could consider sending the Americans back to the United States for prosecution.
"But right now the matter rests within the Haitian judicial system," Crowley said. "We respect that. And we will continue to have discussions with the Haitian government as this case proceeds."
People in the village of Callebas have contradicted claims that the children, aged between 2 and 12, came from orphanages or were handed over by distant relatives.
They said they had surrendered their children after a local orphanage worker, fluent in English and acting on behalf of the Baptists, convened nearly the entire village of 500 people on a dirt soccer field to present an offer from the Americans.
Parents jumped at offer
Isaac Adrien, 20, told his neighbors the missionaries would educate their children in the neighboring Dominican Republic, the villagers said, adding that they were also assured they would be free to visit their children there.
Adrien said he met Silsby in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 26. She told him she was looking for homeless children, he said, and he knew exactly where to find them.
He rushed home to Callebas, where people scrape by growing carrots, peppers and onions. That day, he had a list of 20 children. Many parents said they had jumped at the offer.
"It's only because the bus was full that more children didn't go," said Melanie Augustin, a 58-year-old who gave her 10-year-old daughter, Jovin, to the Americans.
Laurentius Lelly, a 27-year-old computer technician who gave up his two children, ages 4 and 6, said: "I am living in a tent with a friend. My main concern is that if the kids come back I'm not going to be able to feed them."
Lelly said he was worried the Haitian judicial system would not properly investigate the case.
"I would like to find out if these people were really going to help the kids or were trying to steal them," Lelly said.
Representatives of the missionary group said Wednesday from the Dominican Republic that the missionaries "willingly accepted kids they knew were not orphans because the parents said they would starve otherwise."
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URL: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35235514/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake//
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By all means they were stupid Americans, but I doubt they deserve prison time in Haiti for it...
