Chad judge meets kidnap kids

2007-11-20 19:32

N'Djamena - A Chadian judge probing a charity's alleged attempt to abduct 103 children to France met the youngsters involved at an orphanage on Tuesday in the eastern town of Abeche, a judicial source said.

The judge and a prosecutor from the Chadian capital will also interview the families of the children as part of their visit, probably at the end of the week, the source said.

Seventeen Europeans and four Chadians were arrested last month as the French charity Zoe's Ark tried to fly the children from Abeche to France.

Zoe's Ark says the children were orphans from neighbouring Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

But Chad says the group did not have permission to take the children out of the country, and aid agencies who have since cared for them said most of the youngsters are Chadian and have at least one living parent.

The Spanish flight crew, three French journalists and a Belgian pilot were released, but six French charity workers remain in jail in N'Djamena on charges of child abduction. The Chadians were charged with complicity.

- SAPA