Six French charity workers detained in Chad over efforts to fly 103 children to France began a hunger strike on Saturday to protest what they call a "biased" probe into the incident, a judicial source said.
"They have begun their hunger strike, but are continuing to drink water and smoke," the source said. "They are saying that they are determined to continue their strike until they are freed because they say they have committed no crime."
The six French nationals are incarcerated in the Chadian capital of N'Djamena on charges of kidnapping and fraud. Five Chadian officials and a Sudanese refugee are also detained for complicity.
The investigating judge concluded his probe into the incident on Tuesday and received the prosecutor's recommendations on Thursday. He is expected to issue an edict next week on whether the case will be tried and, if so, whether it will be heard in a court dealing with crimes or misdemeanors.
But the five charity workers claim the judge is biased. One of them, Philippe van Winkelberg, wrote a letter to that effect, claiming "proof" of the defendants' innocence was not taken into account.
In France, Gilbert Collard, lawyer for the detained members of the Zoe's Ark charity, said the six felt forsaken by the French government.
"The decision to launch a hunger strike is the result of a situation of diplomatic and political abandonment in which our compatriots are left," he said on Saturday, adding he personally believed French President Nicolas Sarkozy would ultimately intervene on their behalf.
Sarkozy flew to Chad last month to bring home other Europeans involved in the botched flight.
In October, Chadian authorities halted a controversial operation in the eastern city of Abeche, as charity members tried to board more than 100 African children on a France-bound plane.
Zoe's Ark has said that it thought the children were orphans from Darfur, the neighboring Sudanese region in the throes of civil war.
But humanitarian organizations claim almost all the children are from Chadian villages in the border area and have at least one parent or adult guardian.
Also charged initially were three French journalists, seven Spanish air crew members and a Belgian pilot. They have been released.
Those charged could incur sentences of between five to 20 years of forced labor in Chad.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS