Posted: 02/18/2010 at 12:32pm | IP Logged

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (ANS) -- Eight of the ten detained American missionaries accused of kidnapping Haitian children following the January 12 earthquake, are now on American soil 19 days after they were arrested on the Dominican Republic border with Haiti..

The missionaries were set free by a judge Wednesday, "marking a turning point in a three-week saga that captivated the American public but irked Haitian leaders who complained it became a distraction from their immense rebuilding task," said the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newspaper in a report by David Luhnow and Yochi Dreazen.

The judicial magistrate in the case kept in jail the group's leader, Idaho Internet entrepreneur Laura Silsby, and her nanny and main colleague in the Haiti venture, Charisa Coulter for further inquiries.

The Americans were arrested Jan. 29 on the border of the Dominican Republic with a busload of 33 children and inadequate documentation for removing them from the country.

According to Lt. Kenneth Scholz of the U.S. Southern Command in a CBS/AP report, a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane carrying the Americans landed just after midnight Wednesday at Miami International Airport. The group still hadn't emerged from customs as of early Thursday.

The WSJ said the group's swift departure from Haiti began a day earlier when Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said eight of the ten missionaries were free to leave without bail because parents of the children had testified they voluntarily gave their children to the missionaries believing the Americans would give them a better life.

"The parents gave their kids away voluntarily," Saint-Vil said in explaining his decision.

He said, however, that he still wanted to question the group's leader, Laura Silsby, and her former nanny, Charisa Coulter.

The Wall Street Journal says the ten were investigated on charges of child abduction and conspiracy, "but those charges apparently melted under testimony from parents, who said they willingly turned over their children to the missionaries."

The newspaper said the missionaries always maintained they weren't trafficking in children but following a Christian call to help victims of the earthquake.

Two lawyers for the detained Americans, after meeting with Bernard Saint-Vil, the magistrate, announced Wednesday afternoon that he had ordered their release, the newspaper said.

The order was "signed with no conditions and no bail," said Gary Lissade, a former justice minister of Haiti, and a lawyer for one of the Americans, Jim Allen of Amarillo, Texas.

"Formally the charges haven't been dropped" against the eight missionaries the magistrate ordered freed, he said, "but the fact that there were no conditions or bail is a great indication that the charges will be dropped."

About two hours after Saint-Vil signed the release, the eight Americans were freed from the judicial police headquarters. A white van from the U.S. Embassy picked them up, the newspaper reported.

According to the WSJ report, a swarm of media began asking them questions, "but the Americans said nothing, looking taciturn. When a reporter told them it was snowing in Idaho, one of the missionaries finally broke into a smile."

The newspaper stated that as the Americans waited in the van to leave, a Haitian man who said he was the group's interpreter and that he had delivered food to them in prison, pressed his hand to the window. Some of the missionaries put their hands up, too. One mouthed, "Thank you."

The newspaper says Silsby and Coulter are being held because, unlike the others, they made a previous trip to Haiti in December during which they apparently visited a Haitian orphanage. "I want to know why she came and what she did at this orphanage," Saint-Vil said Monday.

Chiller Roy, a lawyer for Ms. Silsby, declined on Monday to comment on his client's December visit to Haiti. Silsby will remain in jail, but Saint-Vil ordered Charisa Coulter, who suffers from diabetes, to be moved to a hospital, the Associated Press reported.

Saint-Vil, the magistrate, also said he wanted to ask Ms. Silsby when she met Jorge Puello, a man who presented himself as a lawyer for the missionaries.

According to the WSJ, Puello isn't a lawyer but a fugitive wanted by El Salvador on charges of child trafficking and by the U.S. on a variety of charges including immigrant smuggling.

"The two cases are completely separate," Mr. Saint-Vil said on Monday, "but we obviously need to make sure that Ms. Silsby and Mr. Puello didn't know each other before" the missionaries were arrested.

Roy said Sunday that Ms. Silsby "never met Mr. Puello before she was arrested in Haiti."

Puello said in an interview Tuesday that he hadn't met any of the missionaries before they were arrested, adding that he read about their case in a Dominican newspaper.

Late Wednesday in Meridian, Idaho, Ms. Coulter's father, Mel, said: "We're anxious for the rest of the process to be completed�TThere are couple of puzzle pieces that have to be added to the puzzle. We want the rest of them home so we can have an even bigger celebration."

The newspaper states that at first, the arrest of the missionaries sparked anger and suspicion in Haiti, due to fears that child traffickers would exploit the chaos caused by the Jan .12 earthquake.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive later complained that journalists would ask him only about the ten missionaries when he had to deal with millions of homeless.

Stephen Kurczy, writing for the Christian Science Monitor, reports that Judge Bernard Sainvil said Charisa Coulter and Laura Silsby, the financially troubled leader of the group, are being kept for further investigation. It was unclear if they still faced charges of child abduction and criminal conspiracy, which can carry prison terms of up to 15 years.

“Eight of my clients will be set free,” lawyer Aviol Fleurant told Agence-France Presse (AFP). “The judge wants to question two of my clients because they were in Haiti before the earthquake.”

The missionaries, who mostly belonged to two Baptist churches in Idaho, were brought Feb. 4 before a judge who found sufficient evidence to charge them with abduction and criminal conspiracy.

The eight freed yesterday were allowed to return to the US immediately, but are required to return for any legal proceedings if required, the BBC reports.

The Christian Science Monitor said the stated purpose of the New Life Children's Refuge group's “Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission” was to “rescue Haitian orphans” in the wake of the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated the impoverished Caribbean nation. But the newspaper says it turned out that most of the 33 children had families and many of their parents had willingly given the children to the missionaries.

The newspaper said that in a bizarre twist to the case, it was revealed that a man who briefly served as the group's legal adviser is wanted on people smuggling charges in the US and El Salvador.

Jorge Puello has since disappeared, telling the Associated Press Wednesday that he was in Panama, and the group's Haitian attorney has accused him of absconding with most of the legal fees.

"He was supposed to give me $40,000 and he gave me $10,000 and he stole $30,000 and he disappeared," Fleurant, the Haitian attorney, told the AP.

The newspaper, citing a New York Times report, also said the group has been embarrassed by reports that Silsby recently defaulted on a $358,000 home and had outstanding complaints from employees over unpaid wages, state liens on a company bank account, and lawsuits in small claims court.

Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, which has been lobbying the Haitian government on the missionaries’ behalf, said: "I am extremely disturbed that two of the missionaries are being left behind
They operated as a group, they worked as a group -- it almost seems punitive or some kind of a payback to hold two and release the eight.."

“I think that if it was publicly known to all involved that Ms. Silsby had some of these issues in her past, I do not think she would have been the spokesperson and leader of the group,” said Mahoney, who has had regular contact with the missionaries’ families in Idaho.

“The issue is not that these were kidnappers," Mahoney added by telephone Wednesday, "but that they did not have the proper paperwork. Do you put someone in jail and threaten them with 15 years’ prison because they don’t have proper paperwork?”

CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobeilla reports that it's a possibility that Silsby and Coulter could face charges. The network said it is still unclear why Silsby stated the children were orphans when many of them were not and the judge believes she knew that. Also, Silsby and Coulter had been to Haiti before and the judge wants to know why.

CBS reported that just after dusk in Haiti, the bedraggled, sweat-stained group of eight walked out of the jail escorted by U.S. diplomats. They waited until they were safely inside a white embassy van before some flashed smiles and gave a thumbs up to reporters. Their plane took off from Port-au-Prince shortly thereafter as a group of reporters watched.

The network says Silas Thompson, 19, of Twin Falls, Idaho, plopped into the back seat, breathing heavily and beaming with relief. He'd accompanied his father Paul, a pastor, on the mission not knowing that Silsby had not obtained the proper papers, said his U.S.-based lawyer, Caleb Stegall.

CBS said the missionaries were charged with child kidnapping for trying to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without Haitian adoption certificates.

Their detentions came just as aid officials were urging a halt to short-cut adoptions in the wake of the earthquake. Before their release, Haiti's No. 2 justice official, Claudy Gassent, informed them of the judge's decision but said he also gave them a lecture, CBS said.

"They know they broke the law," Gassent said.

CBS reports the missionaries say they were on a do-it-yourself "rescue mission" to take child quake victims to a hastily prepared orphanage in the Dominican Republic, denying the trafficking charge.

Silsby originally said they were taking only orphaned and abandoned children, but The Associated Press says it determined that at least 20 were handed over willingly by their parents, who said the Baptists had promised to educate them and let their parents visit.

CBS reports that Saint-Vil said he did not release Silsby, 47, or Coulter, 24, because of their previous activities in Haiti during a December visit. Silsby hastily enlisted the rest of the group after the earthquake. Coulter, of Boise, Idaho, is diabetic and the judge signed an order Wednesday afternoon authorizing her hospitalization.

CBS also quoted attorney Fleurent as saying the Haitian judge ruled Wednesday that the other two Americans, Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter, will remain behind because authorities want to determine why they traveled to Haiti on a trip before the earthquake.

"It feels great for him to be back from Haiti," said Hiram Sasser, who represents one of the men in the missionary group, Jim Allen. "It's great that the attention will return to where it should be back on the people of Haiti."

Lawyer Gary Lissade, who also represents Allen, said the fact that the judge was releasing the Americans on their own recognizance may indicate that the charges will be eventually dropped.

Phyllis Allison, Allen's mother, said she couldn't wait to see her son.

"It's been awful, but we just trusted in God that it would happen," she said.

Allen, a Texan who joined the group late in the planned mission because of his construction skills, was among the eight released from jail on a judge's orders.

In regard to his release, Allen released a statement in which he said: "A short while ago, I was informed that I have been released on a judge's order and that I am free to return to Amarillo, Texas.

"My faith means everything to me, and I knew this moment would come when the truth would set me free. I thank Judge Bernard Saint-Vil for listening to my story, and I thank the Haitian people for keeping me safe and seeing that Justice was served. I also thank the many people around the world who prayed for me, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison for speaking out, Mr. Lissade who represented me in Haiti and many others for working so hard on my behalf.

"I hope today's actions will allow everyone to focus again on the dire conditions that remain in Haiti. People are still suffering and lack basic necessities. Please find it in your hearts, as I did in mine, to find ways to give to those in need. For those whose cases have not been resolved, we will continue to pray for their safe return. Finally, to my wife Lisa, and family, I love you and look forward to being with you all again soon.."

Philip J. Crowley, Assistant Secretary, US Bureau of Public Affairs, in a statement to the media said: "Today, the Haitian judge released eight of the ten American citizens and they have departed Haiti for the United States. Two members of the group are being detained in Haiti to answer further questions, as the investigation is ongoing.

"The United States Government respects the sovereign right of the Government of Haiti to conduct its own judicial processes. The United States Embassy in Port au Prince has been providing the detained Americans with consular visits and assistance to ensure that they are safe and receiving necessary care. Haitian authorities have been cooperative in ensuring the individuals’ safety and welfare since their arrest and we have every expectation this will continue."

Source: (ANS) www.assistnews.net