PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Ten U.S. Baptist missionaries were charged with kidnapping Thursday for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti to a hastily arranged refuge just as officials were trying to protect children from predators in the chaos of a great earthquake.

The Haitian lawyer who represents the 10 Americans portrayed nine of his clients as innocents caught up in a scheme they did not understand. But attorney Edwin Coq did not defend the actions of the group leader, Laura Silsby, though he continued to represent her.

"I'm going to do everything I can to get the nine out. They were naive. They had no idea what was going on and they did not know that they needed official papers to cross the border," Coq said. "But Silsby did."

Family members of the Americans released a statement late Thursday saying they were concerned about their relatives jailed in a foreign country.

"Obviously, we do not know details about what happened and didn't happen on this mission," the statement said. "However, we are absolutely convinced that those who were recruited to join this mission traveled to Haiti to help, not hurt, these children."

The Americans, most members of two Idaho churches, said they were rescuing abandoned children and orphans from a nation that UNICEF says had 380,000 even before the catastrophic Jan. 12 quake.

But at least two-thirds of the children, who range in age from two to 12, have parents who gave them away because they said the Americans promised the children a better life.

The investigating judge, who interviewed the missionaries Tuesday and Wednesday, found sufficient evidence to charge them for trying to take the children across the border into the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without documentation, Coq said.

Each was charged with one count of kidnapping, which carries a sentence of five to 15 years in prison, and one of criminal association, punishable by three to nine years. Coq said the case would be assigned a judge and a verdict could take three months.

The magistrate, Mazard Fortil, left without making a statement. Social Affairs Minister Jeanne Bernard Pierre, who has harshly criticized the missionaries, refused to comment. The government's communications minister, Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, said only that the next court date had not been set.

U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten showed up after 5 p.m. outside judicial police headquarters, where the Americans are being held and where President Rene Preval and top ministers now have temporary offices because theirs were destroyed in the quake.

"The U.S. justice system cannot interfere in what's going on with these Americans right now," he told reporters. "The Haitian justice system will do what it has to do."

U.S. consular officials have been making regular visits to the missionaries.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Americans' behavior "unfortunate whatever the motivation."

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. was open to discuss "other legal avenues" for the defendants, an apparent reference to the Haitian prime minister's earlier suggestion that Haiti could consider sending the Americans back to the United States for prosecution.

It's unlikely the Americans could be tried back home, according to Christopher J. Schmidt, an expert on international child kidnapping law in St. Louis, Mo. U.S. statutes may not even apply, he said, since the children never crossed an international border.

Silsby waved and smiled faintly to reporters but declined to answer questions as the Baptists were whisked away from the closed court hearing back to the holding cells where they have been held since Saturday. People rendered homeless by the quake sat idly under tarps in the parking lot, smoke rising from a cooking fire.

Earlier, Silsby expressed optimism about .....

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I would not automatically believe these people just because they say they are Christians. I know many so-called "Christians" whom I would not trust (for valid reasons) around my unsecured valuables. Heck, the KKK consider themselves Christian. Are they good people with good intentions? No. Are these people? Maybe, but then again, maybe not. Either way, they broke Haiti's laws and have to deal with the consequences. That's the real issue.

by   
CAmira
February 5, 2010, 10:58 am
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....BTW, the longer this case goes on (if the authorities can corroborate the story that their intentions were purely good) the worse Haiti's children will be.

...Id expect the grown adults on this site to connect the dots in that regard...

by   
A_day_in_the_life
February 5, 2010, 9:05 am
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I believe Christ protects His children, and I do think this case should be thrown out after interviewing every individual (if their stories match).

Its not like they were a random family, they were missionaries.

I commend Haiti's authorities for thwarting this adoption either way, and as i said before, at least the real child predators have been put on alert.

by   
A_day_in_the_life
February 5, 2010, 9:03 am
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@ Meosity, How the heck do you know someone's heart?

And who are you to judge what God they serve?

You're playing with fire on that one.

Nevertheless, my personal take is this. Its illogical why they would go the illegal route about taking some kids out of the country when it would be easy to do it the proper way. But cant nobody here judge these people's intentions, as above all, they say they came in the name of Christ. I will let their yes's be yes's and no's be no's.

by   
A_day_in_the_life
February 5, 2010, 9:01 am
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I do not believe this lady had the children’s best interest in mind. She saw this thing as a money making opportunity. With the amount of people wanting to adopt from Haiti, she knew she would make a boat load of money. She should be prosecuted. Besides, you can tell the heart of these people. They did not go to orphanages, they went to poor villages. Look at these people in jail complaining. Thousands of people there are not eating anything let alone sleeping with a roof over their head. I am not sure what god they came in the name of, but it certainly was not Jesus.

by   
Meosity
February 5, 2010, 7:58 am
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