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Africa
Chad aid workers return to France
Convicted of attempted kidnapping, the six are to serve their sentences in France.
Last Modified: 28 Dec 2007 20:37 GMT

The children who were being taken away may
 soon be returned to their families [AFP]

Six French charity workers, convicted of attempting to kidnap 103 children in Chad, have arrived in France to serve their sentences.
 
The workers had been sentenced to eight years' hard labour by a court in Chad on Wednesday.
Rachida Dati, the French justice minister, had formally requested the six be transferred to serve their terms in France under a 1976 accord between Paris and its former colony.
 
Chad agreed to the request and the charity workers were flown out of the African nation earlier on Friday
The French justice system could reduce their sentences, as French law does allow for forced labour for prisoners.
 
Darfur orphans
 
The French nationals were arrested in October as they tried to fly the children, aged one to 10, to Europe for fostering with families.
 
Zoe's Ark had said it was helping to rescue orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region across Chad's eastern border.
 
But most of the 103 children were found to have come from families in Chadian border villages who were persuaded to give up the infants with promises of education at local centres.
 
Lawyers for the aid workers later said intermediaries had tricked the charity into taking the children when they had genuinely believed they were rescuing Darfur orphans.
 
Court order
 
After weeks in an orphanage in the eastern Chadian town of Abeche, a court order has reportedly permitted that the children can return to their families.
 
A Chadian and a Sudanese accused of acting as accomplices to the Zoe's Ark group were sentenced by the court to four years in jail, while two other Chadians were acquitted.
 
The eight convicted were also ordered to pay 6.3 million euros to the families of the 103 children.
Source:
Agencies
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