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French Aid Workers Get Harsh Sentence

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The Associated Press

Published: December 27, 2007

N'DJAMENA, Chad - A Chadian court convicted six French aid workers of trying to kidnap 103 African children and sentenced them Wednesday to eight years of forced labor.

The sentence came on the fourth day of the trial of the workers for the charity Zoe's Ark, who were charged with fraud and kidnapping after authorities stopped a convoy with 103 children the group was planning to fly to France.

The defendants maintain they were trying to help orphans in Darfur, which borders Chad. An uprising that flared in Darfur in 2003 has led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people and forced 2.5 million to flee.

Subsequent investigations, however, revealed that most of the 103 children that Zoe's Ark was planning to fly out were Chadians who lived with at least one parent or close adult relative.

"This is a sentence that comes under the category of a judicial masquerade," said Celine Lorenzon, an attorney for the six defendants, on France-Info radio.

"We expected this," she said. "They didn't listen to any argument. ... We head back this evening with the feeling that Chad's justice system didn't do its job and that the Chadian people still have a lot to do to be able to be in a republic and have democratic rights."

The French Foreign Ministry in Paris said it would ask Chadian authorities to transfer the six convicted to France. The countries have a bilateral judicial agreement that could allow for such a transfer.

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