Kidnap case aid workers behind bars in France

Six French charity workers sentenced to eight years’ forced labour in Chad for trying to kidnap 103 children were behind bars today, shortly after arriving back in France.

The six landed at Le Bourget airport, north of Paris, at around 9pm yesterday and were later taken to an area jail, said Francois Molins, the state prosecutor for the Paris suburb of Bobigny.

They were weak and visibly demoralised by their ordeal, Mr Molins said at a press conference.

The six, from the charity group Zoe’s Ark, were sentenced by a court in the Chadian capital N’Djamena on Wednesday and were transferred to France under a 1976 judicial accord between the two countries that allows for convicts’ repatriations.

Because France does not have forced labour, it is likely the French justice system will commute or reduce their sentences. But under the judicial accord, Chadian officials must agree to the terms of any sentencing changes, judicial chiefs have said.

Mr Molins and several judges were present at the airport when the aid workers’ plane touched down. After meeting the six, the judges ordered they be jailed awaiting a decision about their sentences – which Mr Molins said was expected around mid-January.

Officials close to the case said they were placed at Fresnes jail, south of Paris.

“Some of them realise that they are entering a period that is going to be difficult,” Mr Molins said.

Security at the airport was high, with the media and supporters of the aid workers kept outside the site. Family members and friends – some bearing signs reading: “Big-hearted humanitarians” – waited outside the walls in hopes of catching a glimpse of their loved ones.

Christine Peligat said she had not seen her husband, Zoe’s Ark member Alain Peligat, at the airport. She said she thought she would have to wait until today to visit him in jail.

“It’s been three months since we’ve seen one another; we can wait another night,” she said.

She said she was worried about her husband’s health and called on officials to order a thorough medical examination of the aid workers – who began a hunger strike earlier this month to draw attention to the case.

Their transfer sparked protests in Chad, a former French colony in central Africa, with many Chadians condemning what they saw as special treatment for Europeans.

In November, French president Nicolas Sarkozy went to Chad to bring home three French journalists and four Spanish flight crew members initially charged in the case.

The journalists and flight crew were arrested along with the aid workers after Chadian authorities stopped the group’s convoy in October. They were heading with the children to an airport, where they planned to take off for France.

The group’s members insisted they were driven by compassion to help orphans in Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region, which borders Chad. But investigations showed most of the children had at least one parent or close adult relative.

Relatives of the children testified that they believed the children were going to be educated in Chad.

“They tricked us by telling us our children would be taught here,” Nassour Gardia told the court. “And then they herded them like cattle to sell in France.”

A spokesman for Mr Sarkozy said the transfer demonstrated the French leader’s resolve to win the aid workers’ release.

He had “pledged, before the families of the six French nationals, that he would spare no effort to win their return to France as soon as possible”, spokesman David Martinon said.

The case has been a major embarrassment for France, which is pushing for a European Union force to be sent to Chad to protect refugees fleeing violence in Darfur.

The Zoe’s Ark scandal has had repercussions for other humanitarian workers, who say their already difficult job along Darfur’s border has been complicated by the suspicion some Chadians now have towards all foreigners offering help.

Days after the aid workers were arrested, the Republic of Congo announced it was suspending all international adoptions because of the events in Chad.