Eight American missionaries freed by a Haitian judge landed in Miami early Thursday, nearly three weeks after the group was charged with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children out of the quake-stricken country.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A Haitian attorney says eight of 10 U.S. missionaries charged with child kidnapping will be released.
Members of the Idaho-based charity, New Life Children’s Refuge sit at a police station in Port-au-Prince in January 2010. A Haitian judge has freed eight of the 10 Americans held in the quake-battered country on child kidnapping charges, saying they can leave the country Wednesday, their lawyer said.
(AFP/File/Fred Dufour)
Aviol Fleurant says group leader Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter will be held for additional questioning. Fleurant represents nine of the 10 members of the Idaho-based church group.
He says the rest of the group are free to leave Wednesday but have not arranged transportation.
Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said earlier in the day that some of the group members would be free to go home Wednesday. But he said he was waiting for the prosecutor’s opinion before announcing who would be freed.
The group was caught trying to take 33 children out of the quake-stricken country late last month
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A Haitian attorney says eight of 10 U.S. missionaries charged with child kidnapping will be released.