8 years hard labour for aid workers !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

Source: SMH
December 27, 2007 Author: AFP




Six French workers for the Zoe's Ark charity were sentenced today to eight years' hard labour in Chad for attempting to take 103 children they said they believed were orphans from Darfur out of the country.

A Chadian and a Sudanese also on trial in the high-profile case were given four years in prison and two other Chadians were acquitted.

The six French citizens were found guilty of "attempted kidnap of children, breaching their civil rights" and "absconding without payment" of bills in their attempt to fly the children to France from eastern Chad on October 25.

Souleimane Ibrahim Adam, a Sudanese refugee, and Mahamat Dagot, a community leader of the Tine town on the Sudan border, who helped the charity as intermediaries, were found guilty of "complicity in attempted kidnap of children", with "major extenuating circumstances", the chief judge, Ngarhondo Djide, said.

Eric Breteau, the head of L'Arche de Zoe (Zoe's Ark), and Adam were also found guilty of using forged papers.

Paris immediately demanded the transfer of the six to France, according to the spokesman for the Foreign Affairs ministry.