French aid workers leave Chad
Friday, 28 Dec 2007 16:22
Six French aid workers extradited from Chad after being found guilty of kidnapping
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The six French aid workers who were found guilty of the attempted kidnap of more than 100 children in Chad have been returned to France.
Despite being sentenced by a Chadian criminal court to eight years' hard labour for trying to kidnap 103 minors in the central
African nation, France has successfully lobbied for their extradition.
The six - four men and two women - work for humanitarian group Zoe's Ark and were arrested in October after having been caught trying to fly the children, aged between one and ten, back to France to be put in foster care.
The episode risked becoming something of a diplomatic stand-off between the
European country and its former colony.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy is believed to have personally lobbied Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby for the release of the six individuals after their sentencing on Wednesday.
And their extradition was secured when France invoked a 30-year-old judicial treaty to have them flown out of the capital N'Djamena, escorted by national officials.
The six individuals at the centre of the episode claimed to have been on a humanitarian mission across the border between Chad and war-torn Sudan's
Darfur region.
However many of the families claimed to have been settled in Chad itself, not Sudan, and were offered education centres in exchange for their children that were then sold to French families for adoption.
Following their departure from Chad, the six workers will be spared the hard labour sentence as the punishment no longer exists in France.
Nevertheless they could face a different penalty, as well as civil law suits from some of the families that adopted the African children.