By Joseph Guyler Delva
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Ten U.S. missionaries detained in Haiti were charged Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association for allegedly trying to take children illegally out of the earthquake-hit country.
After announcing the charges, Haitian Deputy Prosecutor Jean Ferge Joseph told the Americans their case was being sent to an investigative judge.
"That judge can free you but he can also continue to hold you for further proceedings," the deputy prosecutor told the five men and five women in a hearing.
The missionaries, most of whom belong to an Idaho-based Baptist church, were arrested last week on Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic when they tried to cross with a busload of 33 children they said were orphaned by the devastating January 12 quake.
Haitian authorities said the group lacked the authorization and travel documents needed to take the children out of Haiti.
The Americans, who were sent back to a police lock-up to await the judge's decision, deny they were engaged in child trafficking and said they were just trying to help some of the thousands of orphans left destitute and abandoned by the quake.
The case could be diplomatically sensitive at a time when the United States is spearheading a huge relief effort to help hundreds of thousands of Haitian quake victims, and as U.S. aid groups pour millions of dollars of donations into Haiti.
U.S. SAYS CASE IS UP TO HAITIANS
Speaking before the Haitian decision was announced, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the United States was not seeking to interfere in the case.
Crowley sought to play down comments Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Washington was in talks with the Haitian government "about the appropriate disposition of their (missionaries') cases."
"I wouldn't read too much into that," he said. "We have been in touch with Haitian judicial officials just to help understand how they were going to act in this particular case."
He added, "I would put this in the context of, you know, asking for clarifications about ... what (their) procedure would be, what the ... timeline, capacity to be able to pursue this case."
After the Americans' arrest, evidence emerged that most of the children intercepted with them were not orphans. Haitian police said some parents admitted to handing over their children to the missionaries in the belief they would get an education and a better life.
Haiti's government has tightened adoption procedures since the quake, saying it feared unscrupulous traffickers could try to take advantage of the disaster by spiriting away vulnerable children. Officials said they already had reports of trafficking of minors, and even of human organs.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Editing by Jane Sutton and Peter Cooney)
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