Chad will decide fate of convicted french aid workers

CHAD insisted yesterday it would have the last word over the fates of six French aid workers sentenced to eight years of forced labour as France asked they be sent home.

France wants the charity workers, who were convicted of attempting to kidnap 103 African children they claimed were orphans from Darfur, to be repatriated under a 1976 bilateral judicial accord.

The six, from charity group Zoe’s Ark, were sentenced to eight years of forced labour by a court in the Chadian capital, N’djamena, yesterday.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said France was filing its request to Chad, a former French colony, today.

If Chad returns the convicted workers, there are hopes the French justice system will commute or reduce their sentences.

But Chadian justice minister Albert Pahimi Padake said his country would have the last word: “Any commutation of the sentence in this domain cannot be done without the accord of the Chadian authorities,” Mr Padake told French radio RTL.

The case came as France was pushing for an EU force to be sent to Chad to protect refugees fleeing violence in Sudan.

The deployment of the 4,300-member force, drawn largely from France, already has been delayed because of lack of necessary equipment.

Chadian authorities detained the aid workers in October as they were attempting to evacuate 103 children to France.

Later investigations indicated most of the children were Chadians and not — as the aid workers claimed — orphans from Darfur, the conflict-hit Sudanese region which borders Chad to the east.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy instructed his diplomatic adviser to meet family members of the convicted aid workers today, the presidential palace said.