Lawyer to seek ‘provisional release’ of US missionaries in Haiti until kidnapping trial

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Lawyer seeks release of US missionaries in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ten U.S. Baptist missionaries charged with child kidnapping should be allowed to leave the country pending the outcome of their case, their Haitian lawyer argued before a judge Friday.

Prior to the closed hearing, defense attorney Edwin Coq told reporters he would ask the judge to grant the detainees “provisional release,” a type of bail without money posted. He said they should be allowed to leave Haiti until their trial, a date for which has not been established.

“I hope that they will be released today,” said Coq, who was arguing on behalf of his clients one by one.

Late in the day, the 10 Americans were pushed into a waiting police van outside the courthouse and were driven away.

None answered reporters’ shouted questions. Asked if they had been told not to speak, the group’s leader, Laura Sylsby, nodded. Asked if she thought they would be released, she nodded again.

An investigating judge charged the Americans on Thursday with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without documentation.

Coq says Silsby knew she couldn’t take the youngsters without proper paperwork. But he characterized the other nine missionaries as innocents caught up in actions they didn’t understand.

The Baptist group, most of whose members are from two Idaho churches, insisted they were rescuing abandoned children and orphans after the Jan. 12 quake.

But at least 22 of the children, ranging in age from 2 to 12, have parents. Some of the parents told The Associated Press they gave them up willingly because the missionaries promised the children a better life.

Each of the missionaries is 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 was assigned a judge and a verdict could take three months.

“Obviously this is a matter for the Haitian judicial system,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday.

Clinton’s husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, now a special U.N. envoy for Haiti relief, met with President Rene Preval in Port-au-Prince on Friday, but said his visit had nothing to do with the detained Americans. He did say Washington was monitoring their welfare.

Three national leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention sent a letter Friday to President Barack Obama urging him to “do everything within the authority of your office to secure a safe return home” for the detainees.

The leaders added that they could not “speak authoritatively about the motives and actions” of those detained, saying they went to Haiti on their own and weren’t part of the Southern Baptist Convention’s international relief efforts.

Silsby, who wanted to create an orphanage for Haitian children in the neighboring Dominican Republic, and the other nine went to Haiti after the earthquake to gather children for their project.

Most of the children were from the village of Callebas, where people said they handed the kids over because they couldn’t feed or clothe them. Their stories contradicted Silsby’s account that the children came from collapsed orphanages or were handed over by distant relatives.

Silsby also said she believed she had all the necessary documents to take the children. The Dominican consul in Haiti, however, said he warned Silsby her mission would be considered child trafficking if she lacked adoption papers signed by Haitian officials.

Associated Press writers contributing to this report include Matthew Lee in Washington; Abel Guzman in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Jessica Desvarieux in Port-au-Prince and Rachel Zoll in New York.