By VOA News
26 December 2007
Members of Zoe's Arch Eric Breteau (C back) and Emilie Lelouch (L) leave court house in N'Djamena, 26 Dec 2007
Members of Zoe's Arch Eric Breteau (Center back) and Emilie Lelouch (R) leave court house in N'Djamena, 26 Dec 2007
A court in Chad has sentenced six French aid workers to eight years of hard labor for attempting to take more than 100 children out of the central African nation.
The court in the capital, N'Djamena, found the aid workers guilty Wednesday of trying to kidnap the children.
The six are members of the French charity group Zoe's Ark. They were among 17 Europeans arrested in late October as they tried to put the children on a plane bound for France. The other 11 Europeans - all crew members or journalists on the planned flight - were eventually released.
The aid workers maintained they believed they were saving orphans from Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
But an international investigation later determined that most of the 103 children appeared to be from eastern Chad and had at least one parent or guardian.
The six aid workers were charged with attempted kidnapping and fraud. Prosecutors had asked for seven to 11 years of hard labor for the defendants.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
Chadian Court Sentences French Aid Workers to 8 Years Hard Labor
