Chad 7: Crew and pilot freed

2007-11-09 21:14

N'Djamena - Judicial authorities in Chad released three Spanish flight crew and a Belgian pilot detained over a suspected plot by a French charity to fly more than 100 African children to Europe, a defence lawyer said on Friday.

One of the three Spaniards smiled and flashed a thumbs-up signal as he left the courthouse in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena. The group was expected to be flown back to Europe later on Friday.

Chadian lawyer Jean-Bernard Padare, representing the liberated Europeans, said the four were ordered released by a judge after an earlier charge of complicity in the alleged kidnapping plot of 103 children by the charity Zoe's Ark, but were ordered released by a judge.

Six French Zoe's Ark workers charged with attempted kidnapping remain in custody in Chad, where conviction could mean 20 years in prison with hard labour.

In total, 17 Europeans were arrested after Zoe's Ark was stopped on October 25 from flying the children to Europe.

The group said the children were from Sudan's Darfur region and that it intended to place them with host families.

Ministry doubts claims

Zoe's Ark maintains its intentions were purely humanitarian and that it had conducted investigations over several weeks to determine the children it was taking were orphans.

However, France's Foreign Ministry and others have cast doubt on the group's claims that the children were orphans from Sudan's western Darfur region, where fighting since 2003 has forced thousands to flee to Chad and led directly or indirectly to the deaths of more than 200 000 people.

Aid workers who interviewed the children said a majority of the kids reported living with at least one adult they considered a parent.

Three French journalists and three female Spanish flight crew were released Sunday, and flown from the country by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Spaniards were contracted by Zoe's Ark to fly the African kids to France, while the Belgian had piloted a plane carrying some of the children around Chad, also by hire to the French charity.

Helping refugees

The episode comes at a sensitive time in Chad's relations with Europe. The European Union is planning to deploy a peacekeeping force in Chad and Central African Republic composed largely of French soldiers.

The 3 000-strong force is to help refugees along the two nations' borders with Darfur.

In July, Sarkozy's then-wife, Cecilia, helped broker the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor held for more than eight years in Libya, where they were accused of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the Aids virus.

- AP