French ‘child smuggling’ trial to begin next week

SIX French humanitarian workers accused in Chad of trying to smuggle 103 African children to Europe will go on trial on December 21 after authorities speeded up the handling of their case, lawyers said last night.

In an affair that has strained ties between France and its former colony, the six face charges including attempted kidnapping and fraud after they were detained in late October for trying to fly the children, aged one to 10, out of Chad. The accused French nationals are members of a humanitarian group called Zoe’s Ark, which said it planned to place children from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region with European families for fostering.

Chadian authorities and UN officials said the majority were not orphans and came from eastern Chad.

The six accused have denied the charges and began a hunger strike on Friday, refusing food but drinking water. They said they had been abandoned by the French government.

The speed of the proceedings has raised speculation the six French nationals might be returned to France in a deal between Chadian President Idriss Deby and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.