| Ten U.S. missionaries to be tried for kidnapping in Haiti |
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06/02/2010 11:33 (735 Day 18:37 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the ten U.S. missionaries, charged with attempting to take 33 children out of Haiti, will be tried in a Haitian court, CNN has reported.
"Obviously this is a matter for the Haitian judicial system," the channel quoted Clinton as saying.
"We're going to continue to provide support as we do in every instance like this to American citizens who have been charged and hope that this matter can be resolved in an expeditious way, but it is something that a sovereign nation is pursuing based on the evidence that it presented when the charges were announced," she said.
"A judge did not rule out the missionaries' petition for bail, however, under the country's law people charged with kidnapping are not eligible for bail," RIA Novosti informed.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley confirmed that the U.S. had no discussions with Haitian authorities "about shifting prosecution to the United States."
"This is a Haitian legal process. Obviously the 10 American citizens have been charged under Haitian law," he said.
Last week the police said the group of Baptists from the Idaho-based charity called New Life Children Refuge was held on January 29 on the border with the Dominican Republic while trying to take 33 children out of the earthquake-stricken country.
The Americans had no documents authorizing the adoption of the children aged 2 months to 12 years who had survived the devastating earthquake. They said, however, however, they wanted to take the children to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.
The missionaries, five men and five women, might face life in prison if found guilty of kidnapping.
Haitian authorities have tightened adoption rules in the country to prevent child trafficking amid chaos caused by the disastrous earthquake that hit the Caribbean country on January 12 and killed more than 200,000 people.
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