PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Ten U.S. missionaries were charged on Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association for illegally trying to take children out of Haiti.
Women, who are U.S. citizens arrested for their involvement in a suspected illegal adoption scheme, talk to a journalist at a holding cell at the judicial police station in Port-au-Prince February 1, 2010. Haitian authorities were considering on Monday how to deal with a group of American missionaries accused of trying to illegally take children out of the quake-shattered Caribbean country. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
The 10 Americans from two Idaho-based Baptist churches were formally charged with "kidnapping minors and criminal association," said their lawyer Edwin Coq.
Haitian Deputy Prosecutor Jean Ferge Joseph announced the charges and 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 10 Americans.
The missionaries were apparently stunned by the charges as they had already packed their luggage in hopes of a release.
They were arrested last week on Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic when they tried to cross the border with a busload of 33 children they said were orphaned by the Jan. 12 earthquake.
The Haitian authorities said they lacked proper authorization to take the Haitian children out of the country. Most of the children later turned out not to be orphans after all -- Haitian police said some parents admitted handing over their children to the missionaries in the belief they would get an education and a better life.
The Americans denied any ill intentions, saying they were taking the children to a converted orphanage in Cabarete, the Dominican Republic.
After the charges, the group of five men and five women, who have been held since late Friday, could face a long pre-trial detention as the Haitian law allows the prosecutors to draw up the case in three months.
U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten said after the charges: "The U.S. justice system cannot interfere in what's going on with these Americans right now ... The Haitian justice system will do what it has to do."
Before the Haitian charges were announced, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley also said the United States was not seeking to interfere in the case.
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Americans' behavior "unfortunate whatever the motivation."
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Haiti judge questions Americans accused of smuggling children
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Haiti's judicial authorities on Wednesday began questioning 10 Americans accused of illegally taking 33 children out of Haiti after the Jan. 12 earthquake. Haitian Communication Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said that these Americans were being questioned by a Haitian judge to determine whether they will face trial in Haiti or in the United States. Full story
Ten United States missionaries who tried to take 33 Haitian children out the country last week without the government’s consent have been charged with child kidnapping and criminal association for illegally trying to take children out of Haiti.
Their claimed intention was to move the quake victims to a temporary orphanage being set up at a hotel-resort in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Police said the Americans did not have paperwork, nor permissions, to remove the children from the country. If convicted  the Americans could face prison terms of up to fifteen years. ''Reuters'' reported that all ten acknowledged they had violated the law when they tried to take the children from Haiti, but denied they were aware of this breach of law until after their detention. 

Haiti's justice minister, Paul Denis, stated he saw no reason why the missionaries should be tried in the US. "It is Haitian law that has been violated," he told ''AFP''. "It is up to the Haitian authorities to hear and judge the case. I don't see any reason why they should be tried in the United States."