CHAD: Three members of Spanish air crew leave Chad after release from detention over attempt to fly 103 African children to Europe, wrap

Record ID: 777466

  • Title: CHAD: Three members of Spanish air crew leave Chad after release from detention over attempt to fly 103 African children to Europe, wrap
  • Date: 10th November 2007
  • Summary: (W4) N'DJAMENA AIRPORT, CHAD (NOVEMBER 9, 2007) (REUTERS) SPANISH SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS BERNARDINO LEON ENTERING ROOM AND GREETING CHADIAN PRIME MINISTER, NOURADINE DELWA KASSIRE COUMAKOYE CHAD OFFICIALS TAKING NOTES LEON AND KASSIRE SEATED FOR TALKS LEON KASSIRE LEON AND KASSIRE SHAKING HANDS OUTSIDE
  • Embargoed: 25th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Chad
  • Country: Chad
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA6S0BPCGULV0190H5KZQLDL54S
  • Story Text: Chad on Friday (November 9) released three members of a Spanish air crew and a 74-year-old Belgian pilot who had been detained over an attempt by a humanitarian activist group to fly 103 African children to Europe.
    The Spaniards, two pilots and an air steward, were freed from the main prison in Chad's capital N'Djamena and flew back to Madrid with Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Bernardino Leon who had come out especially to collect them.
    Release papers had also been issued for the Belgian pilot, but he had suffered heart problems late on Thursday (November 8) and was recovering at the French military base in Chad.
    He would be evacuated separately, his Chadian lawyer, Jean-Bernard Padare, told reporters.
    After driving out of the prison with Padare and the Spanish consul, the Spanish air crew, still wearing their uniforms and smiling broadly, expressed their relief at being freed.
    Pilots Agustin Rey, Sergio Munoz and steward Daniel Gonzalez worked for the Catalan air charter company Girjet.
    The Spaniards and the Belgian were arrested last month in eastern Chad and charged as accomplices of six French members of the humanitarian activist group calling itself Zoe's Ark.
    The French are still held in Chad and face trial after being charged with fraud and abduction for trying to fly 103 African children they said were Darfur orphans to families in Europe.
    Speaking to reporters just before leaving with the three freed air crew members, Leon said Chadian authorities had come to the conclusion that the Spaniards could not be linked to any suspicion of child abduction or trafficking.
    Leon thanked the Chadian authorities, standing with the three, who said they were eager to get home. Earlier, Leon met and thanked Chadian Prime Minister Nouradine Delwa Kassire Coumakoye.
    Chad says the Zoe's Ark group, which had contracted the Spanish air crew, did not have permission to take the children out of the country. U.N.
    officials say almost all of the infants aged 1-10 came from villages on the Chad-Sudan border and had at least one living parent.
    Spanish media reported the decision to release the aircrew followed testimony given by the detained leader of the Zoe's Ark group, Eric Breteau, who said they had simply been contracted to carry out a flight mission but were not involved in the group's activities in Chad.
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