Chad child scandal: 7 freed
2007-11-04 15:55
N'Djamena - Chad released three French
journalists and four Spanish flight attendants on Sunday, a
lawyer for one of the journalists said, after French President
Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Africa to discuss their case.
The seven were among 16 French and seven Spanish nationals
arrested in the eastern Chadian town of Abeche, near the border
with Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, just over a week ago as
they tried to fly 103 young African children to Europe.
"They are happy, they are free," Jean-Bernard Padare, a
Chadian lawyer, told Reuters by phone.
He said the seven were collecting their belongings from the
main law courts in the capital N'Djamena, where they had
undergone more than 12 hours of questioning on Saturday by an
investigating magistrate.
Six members of a French group called Zoe's Ark and the three
other members of a Spanish air crew are still in custody facing
charges relating to child abduction and fraud.
Zoe's Ark has said it intended to place orphans from Darfur
with European families for foster care and that it had the right
to do so under international law.
Sarkozy arrived in N'Djamena on Sunday to meet Chadian
President Idriss Deby and discuss the fate of the Europeans amid
increasing expectations that some of them would be freed.