Jailed missionary: I'd come back to Haiti

A US Baptist missionary detained on suspicion of child trafficking in Haiti said she would be ready to return again to the earthquake-ravaged country to work with children.

Laura Silsby said from her jail cell that she and nanny Charisa Coulter expected to be released soon, but would both come back despite their troubles.

“Oh yes, both of us would come back to Haiti because there is so much need here, especially for the children,” Ms Silsby said at the airport-side police station where they are being held.

“We would definitely come back to help them once this misunderstanding or whatever you want to call it is sorted out.”

Louis Ricardo Chachoute, a lawyer for the Americans, said he has asked that they be released without bail and believes it will happen by the end of the week, perhaps as early as today. The decision is up to the judge in the case.

“What I can say is our clients are innocent,” Mr Chachoute said. “They only wanted to help.”

The Idaho missionaries were detained with eight other Americans on January 29 while trying to take 33 children from Haiti without the proper papers.

Ms Silsby initially said the children were orphaned in the January 12 earthquake that killed an estimated 230,000 people. But it was found the children had been given away by still-living parents.

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil could decide on releasing the women at any time. He says he is waiting for a recommendation from prosecutors and could order their release even if authorities decided to continue investigating.

Ms Silsby and Ms Coulter denied any suggestion they were trafficking children, saying that the group was arranging an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Three witnesses were brought in to corroborate that story to Judge Saint-Vil on Tuesday.

The missionary said she wanted to go ahead with setting up the orphanage, taking in both earthquake victims and the children of Haitian migrant sugar cane cutters in the Dominican Republic.