Two Detained Americans Appear in Haitian Court
- 14 years ago
The two detained American missionaries appeared in court in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince yesterday. The judge was seeking information about their weekend testimony about how they wanted to set up an orphanage in neighbouring Dominican Republic.
The lawyer was hopeful the two women would be released.
[Aviol Fleurant, Lawyer for Detained Americans]:
"I hope that because the judge has been in Cabarete in the Dominican Republic and he saw with his own eyes the orphanage of Laura Silsby and then everything is very, very clear now and I hope today we can have a very great decision about their release."
Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter were among 10 American missionaries arrested last month. They tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the country, following the devastating January 12 earthquake.
The group had no identity documents for the children or permission to take them out of Haiti.
But many of the children's parents came forward to say they had turned them over voluntarily to the missionaries.
Last week, the judge released eight of the missionaries, most of whom are members of a Baptist church in Idaho.
The missionaries denied any wrongdoing in Haiti and said they just wanted to help orphans left destitute by the quake.
The lawyer was hopeful the two women would be released.
[Aviol Fleurant, Lawyer for Detained Americans]:
"I hope that because the judge has been in Cabarete in the Dominican Republic and he saw with his own eyes the orphanage of Laura Silsby and then everything is very, very clear now and I hope today we can have a very great decision about their release."
Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter were among 10 American missionaries arrested last month. They tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the country, following the devastating January 12 earthquake.
The group had no identity documents for the children or permission to take them out of Haiti.
But many of the children's parents came forward to say they had turned them over voluntarily to the missionaries.
Last week, the judge released eight of the missionaries, most of whom are members of a Baptist church in Idaho.
The missionaries denied any wrongdoing in Haiti and said they just wanted to help orphans left destitute by the quake.