US Baptists charged with Haiti child abduction face 15 years in jail

London Times | February 5, 2010
Will Pavia

Ten American missionaries arrested as they tried to take 33 Haitian children across the border to the Dominican Republic were charged last night with child abduction and criminal conspiracy.

The Baptists from Idaho, who claimed to be rescuing orphaned children from the chaos that followed the earthquake in Haiti, appeared at a hearing in Port-au-Prince where they were told that there was sufficient evidence to charge them and that their case was being sent to an investigative judge.

Jean Ferge Joseph, the Haitian Deputy Prosecutor, told them: “That judge can free you but he can also continue to hold you for further proceedings.” Edwin Coq, the lawyer representing the group, said afterwards that there would not be an open trial. He said that a judge would consider the evidence and could deliver a verdict in about three months.

Kidnapping in Haiti carries a possible jail sentence of five to 15 years in jail, criminal association could entail a sentence of three to nine years. Arriving at the court from the judicial police headquarters where they have been detained in cells for the past week, Laura Silsby, the leader of the group, told reporters: “We expect God’s will to be done. And we will be released.”

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