Ten US missionaries faced a long wait behind bars yesterday after being charged with child abduction and conspiracy for trying to smuggle 33 children out of quake-hit Haiti.
In a case that has overshadowed the huge international relief effort, the Americans were formally charged on Thursday with “kidnapping minors and criminal association,” said Edwin Coq, their lawyer.
The five men and five women — who had arrived at court in a confident mood with their luggage packed — bowed their heads in prayer in the back of a jeep as they were returned to police detention.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Detained a week ago, they now face a long pre-trial detention, as Haitian law gives the prosecution three months to draw up its case.
If convicted, they could face nine years in prison for child kidnapping and further jail time for conspiracy.
They have denied ill intent, saying they were only trying to help children abandoned after the Jan. 12 quake that killed an estimated 212,000 people and left at least a million homeless.
Haitian Justice Minister Paul Denis told reporters he saw “no reason” why the group from the Idaho-based Baptist charity New Life Children’s Refuge should be sent to the US for trial.
“It is Haitian law that has been violated,” he said. “It is up to Haitian authorities to hear and judge the case.”
As they were escorted into the jeep, some tried to cover their faces with a black jacket. Haitian journalists whipped it off and one threw a stone.
The case has sparked outrage in impoverished Haiti, where child-trafficking was already rife before the 7.0-magnitude quake.
The US missionaries were held as they attempted to cross into the Dominican Republic with a busload of 33 children aged from two months to 12 years.
It has emerged many of the children have living parents or relatives, some of whom may have personally handed them over for a better life.
The UN Children’s Fund says 40 percent of Haitian children were already in great poverty, with 300,000 in orphanages, even before the quake struck.
It warned of a “significant danger” that displaced children could be sold into slave-like conditions, trafficked or illegally adopted.
The quake left much of the capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding area in rubble, and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told reporters the toll of 212,000 was likely to rise “a little bit” as recovery crews pulled out more bodies.
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