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US missionaries charged in Haiti | |
(10 minutes later) | |
Ten US missionaries have been charged with child abduction and criminal conspiracy for trying to smuggle children out of quake-ravaged Haiti. | |
If convicted they face lengthy jail terms, says the BBC's Paul Adams at the court hearing in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. | |
When stopped on the border last Friday, they said they were taking the children to a Dominican Republic orphanage. | When stopped on the border last Friday, they said they were taking the children to a Dominican Republic orphanage. |
But it has emerged some of the 33 youngsters had parents who were alive. | But it has emerged some of the 33 youngsters had parents who were alive. |
'Kidnappers' | 'Kidnappers' |
The five men and five women, most of them from Idaho, were due to have a hearing earlier in the week, but that was postponed because of a lack of interpreters. | |
Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has labelled the Americans "kidnappers". | Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has labelled the Americans "kidnappers". |
Residents in the village of Callebas told an Associated Press news agency reporter they had handed their children over through a local orphanage worker who said he was acting on the Americans' behalf. | |
The worker is said to have promised the families that the missionaries would educate their children in neighbouring Dominican Republic. | The worker is said to have promised the families that the missionaries would educate their children in neighbouring Dominican Republic. |
A number of parents in the badly-damaged village said they would find it difficult to provide for their children if they came back. | A number of parents in the badly-damaged village said they would find it difficult to provide for their children if they came back. |
"I am living in a tent with a friend," one parent, Laurentius Lelly, told AP. He said he had given up his two children, ages four and six. | "I am living in a tent with a friend," one parent, Laurentius Lelly, told AP. He said he had given up his two children, ages four and six. |