Eight Americans accused of kidnapping children leave Haiti by Zuzana Zelenakova

Devastating earthquake at Haiti was followed by another public upheaval when ten American missionaries tried to get 33 Haitian children out of the country on January 29 without Haitian adoption certificates and subsequently were accused of kidnapping them. Five men and five women have been in danger of maximum penalty of life imprisonment sentence for the kidnapping. They were also charged with criminal association, for which there is a penalty of three to nine years at Haiti. Relatives of the detained Americans called on Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive to intervene, the attempts were unsuccessful though. "Those people are not in the hands of the government; the! y are in the hands of justice," said Bellerive. "We have to respect the law. It is clear that the people violated the law. What we have to understand is if they did it in good faith." On Wednesday, February 17, eight of ten American missionaries were freed from prison and left for Miami. Almost three weeks since they have been taken into custody. According to judge Bernard Saint-Vil the eight Americans were freed without bail because parents of the children testified they gave up their offspring voluntarily as they imagined they would have much better life in America. He further said he wants to further keep the leader of the Baptist group Laura Silsby, and Charisa Coulter, because they arrived at Haiti before the catastrophe and were acquiring information about orphans. Silsby runs an orphanage in the neighboring Dominican Republic. The charges against the eight released people have not been dropped yet, however. "The release such as the one today is not a definitive decis! ion. They should remain available for presentation before the ! judge," said Louis Garu Lissade, a Haitian lawyer of one of the group members Jim Allen.

related story (sgx16502): http://www.france24.com/en/20100218-eight-10-americans-accus...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

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