Reuters: Chad aid workers verdict 03 January

Chadian president pardoned six French charity workers on Monday, after the members of Zoe's Ark had been sentenced in December to eight years of hard labour for attempting to fly 103 African children to France. The official decrees, published in Chad's capital N'djamena, have now to be transmitted to French authorities who could free the aid workers within the next 24 hours.

Six charity workers convicted in Chad of trying to kidnap children and fly them to France are awaiting their sentence. The six members of the aid group Zoe's Ark were ordered to serve eight years of hard labour by a Chadian court, but now that they have been extradited to France, their sentence is being recast. Only five of the six defendants were in court on Monday, including Zoe's Ark founder Eric Breteau, who has been on hunger strike since his return from Chad. The group insists it was pursuing a humanitarian goal: to rescue children from the crisis in Darfur.

Their departure from Chad followed a highly publicised legal case and diplomatic imbroglio which embarrassed France, a key backer of Chadian President Idriss Deby. French troops and planes stationed in Chad have given logistical and intelligence support to Deby's army fighting rebels in the east. France is also the main contributor of troops to a European Union peace force preparing to deploy in eastern Chad to protect thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadian civilians.

Sixteen Europeans are accused of participating in the alleged kidnap of 103 children in eastern Chad -- including six members of an aid group which claims it intended to fly orphans from the war-torn Darfur region to safety in France. Nine French nationals, including six aid workers of Zoe's Ark and three journalists, were charged late Monday with "kidnapping minors" and "fraud". Seven Spanish aircraft crew and two Chadian nationals were charged with complicity.

Six French charity workers convicted of trying to kidnap 103 children in Chad arrived back in France late on Friday where prosecutors were mulling how to adjust their hard labour sentences. The members of L'Arche de Zoe (Zoe's Ark) were convicted Wednesday of attempted abduction for having tried to fly the children to France, claiming they were war orphans from the Sudanese region of Darfur which borders eastern Chad. Images and soundbites from family members at Le Bourget airport just outside Paris.

Paris is scrambling to contain a row sparked by a French charity's bid to airlift more than 100 children out of Chad, a key ally for Europe's peacekeeping strategy in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region. President Idriss Deby Itno reacted furiously to the botched operation, even suggesting the charity Zoe's Ark planned to sell the children to pedophiles or "kill them and remove their organs". Nine French nationals, seven Spaniards and a Belgian are facing possible child trafficking charges over the case, which has strained ties with France's former colony. A news report on the affair.

A Chadian prosecutor said the French, who are members of a group called Zoe's Ark, faced five to 20 years hard labour if convicted of child-trafficking. The charity, which said it wanted to place orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur with European families denied that it had acted illegally. Seven Spanish crew members of the plane chartered for the operation were charged as accessories, along with two Chadians.

Six French aid workers accused of trying to kidnap 103 children return to jail after the third day of their trial end. One of the accused falls ill during trial.

The women's car was ambushed by a gang with machine-guns in Bosasso port as they drove to a local hospital. It's the latest abduction in the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region of Somalia. It comes two days after gunmen in Puntland released French journalist Gwen Le Gouil. He'd been kidnapped and held for eight days - his captors demanding $80,000 in ransom.