US group 'faces trial over Haiti kidnap'
US group 'faces trial over Haiti kidnap'
Also In The News
|
By Adam Leveridge
Michael Schumacher felt as though he was back in 1991 at the beginning of his formula one career, after completing his first day of testing for Mercedes GP. |  |
Tuesday, 02, Feb 2010 10:21
By Richard James.
A group of US church activists arrested on suspicion of trying to kidnap over 30 Haitian children could be sent back to America to face trial, reports suggest.
The five men and five women remained in police custody in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Monday accused of attempting to take 33 children out of the country without government permission.
The group from the charity New Life Children's Refuge are said to have been detained on the border with the Dominican Republic during the weekend claiming they were trying to rescue abandoned children from last month's devastating earthquake which left around 200,000 people dead.
Haiti communications minister Marie-Laurence Jocelin Lassegue though is quoted as saying of the group: "There can be no question of taking our children off the streets and out of the country. They will be judged."
Reports have suggested some of the children found with the group may have parents that are still alive.
Haiti has imposed stricter controls on adoption to prevent child trafficking in the aftermath of the worst earthquake to strike the country in 200 years.
The church workers have claimed they trying to take the children to an orphanage across the border in the Dominican Republic.
The US embassy in Haiti has yet to comment on whether Washington would accept hosting judicial proceedings for the group if they are sent for trial.
State department spokesman PJ Crowley declared: "Once we know all the facts, we will determine what the appropriate course is, but the judgment is really up to the Haitian government."
The Caribbean nation is continuing to struggle to recover from last month's quake which is believed to have left 1.5 million homeless, as the international aid effort battles against the almost non-existent infrastructure in the impoverished country.