Judge to recommend missionaries set free

THE Haitian judge deciding whether 10 US missionaries should face trial on charges of trying to take a busload of children out of the country says he will recommend they are released.

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil finished questioning the Americans on

Wednesday. He must now send his recommendation to the prosecutor, who may agree or object.

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But the judge has the final authority to decide whether they stay in custody or go free.

Mr Saint-Vil said he will recommend that all 10 be released but would not elaborate, and it was not clear last night whether that means the charges may be dropped.

The judge made his recommendation after questioning the Americans, including Corinna Lankford, pictured, from Meridian, Idaho, and after hearing testimony from parents who said they willingly gave their children to the Baptist missionaries, believing they would educate and care for them.

"After listening to the families, I see the possibility that they can all be released," Mr Saint-Vil said.

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Gary Lassade, an attorney for one of the Americans, said he expects the judge to issue a final decision later recommending the case be dropped entirely, though the prosecutor could appeal against that ruling.

The Americans, most from an Idaho Baptist group, were charged last week with child kidnapping and criminal association after being arrested on January 29 while trying to take 33 children, ages two to 12, across the border to an orphanage they were trying to set up in the Dominican Republic.

The following day, group leader Laura Silsby of Meridian, Idaho, said the children were obtained either from orphanages or from distant relatives. However, at least 20 of the children are from a single village and have living parents

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