- Title: HAITI: US missionaries return to jail after being charged with kidnapping
- Date: 5th February 2010
- Summary: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (FEBRUARY 4, 2010) (REUTERS) CAMERA OPERATORS SURROUNDING WHITE VAN CARRYING US MISSIONARIES ARRIVING BACK AT JAIL VARIOUS OF US MISSIONARIES SITTING IN VAN CAMERA CREWS FOLLOWING AMERICANS US MISSIONARY GETTING OUT OF VEHICLE AND WALKING INTO JAIL CAMERAMEN CROWING AROUND DOOR OF JAIL OFFICIALS ARGUING AMERICAN MAN WALKING FROM VAN TO JAIL AS
- Embargoed: 20th February 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Haiti
- Country: Haiti
- Reuters ID: LVAE1XFQ87JQLABG6SDKSDF5AZVS
- Story Text: Ten U.S. missionaries detained in Haiti returned to jail on Thursday (February 4) after a judge charged them with child kidnapping and criminal association for allegedly trying to take children illegally out of the earthquake-hit country.
Arriving in a white van, the missionaries were mobbed by cameramen as they returned to jail. An investigative judge will decide whether to free them or hold them for further proceedings.
The missionaries, most of whom belong to an Idaho-based Baptist church, were arrested last week on Haiti's border when they tried to cross with a busload of 33 children they said were orphaned by the devastating January 12 quake.
They deny they were engaged in child trafficking and said they were just trying to help some of the thousands of orphans left destitute and abandoned by the quake.
Haitian authorities said the group lacked the authorization and travel documents needed to take the children out of Haiti.
After the Americans' arrest, evidence emerged that most of the children intercepted with them were not orphans. Haitian police said some parents admitted to handing over their children to the missionaries in the belief they would get an education and a better life. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None