Ten US missionaries have been charged with kidnapping after they tried to smuggle a group of Haitian children out of the country.
The five men and five women from an Idaho-based charity were formally charged with "kidnapping minors and criminal association," said lawyer Edwin Coq.
They were detained late last Friday, after trying to drive a bus-load of 33 children over the border into the Dominican Republic.
The group has denied any ill-intentions, saying they were merely trying to help children orphaned and abandoned by the January 12 quake.
But it was later revealed that many of the children involved in the case still had parents or other relatives alive in Haiti.
As she arrived at court, one of the accused said that she and her co-defendants "are just trusting God for a positive outcome".
'No reason' for US trial
Government prosecutor Mazan Fortil said it was not yet clear if the 10 would be tried in the Haiti.
"We cannot say right now. We have to apply Haitian law. The case will be sent before a judicial panel, to open the investigation," Fortil said.
Haiti's justice minister Paul Denis said he saw "no reason" why the group should be returned to the United States for trial.
"It is Haitian law that has been violated," he said. "It is up to the Haitian authorities to hear and judge the case.
"I don't see any reason why they should be tried in the United States."
Despite a huge aid effort, many survivors remain desperate for food, water and medicine.
Among the destitute are thousands of children who, having lost their parents and homes, are seen as particularly vulnerable to traffickers and child predators.
Kidnap case 'a distraction'
The missionaries from the Baptist charity New Life Children's Refuge were detained late last Friday as they attempted to cross into the Dominican Republic with a busload of children aged from two months to 12 years.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was "unfortunate" that "this group of Americans took matters into their own hands".
Their lawyer Coq said a Haitian pastor had authorized the Baptists to take the children out. "They were missionaries who came to help," he said.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive claims the case is becoming "a distraction" for Haitians with people "talking more now about 10 people than about one million people suffering on the streets".
Bellerive said the 7.0-magnitude quake had killed more than 200,000 people and was "a disaster on a planetary scale".
Another 300,000 injured people had been treated, while 250,000 homes had been destroyed and 30,000 businesses lost, he said.
Share
