Friday, February 5, 2010

Ten U.S. missionaries charged with kidnapping in Haiti have been taken back to jail after appearing before a judge to request provisional release.

A lawyer for all 10 says the judge has not ruled on the request.

More hearings in the case are scheduled for next week.

The tired looking missionaries filed back into a police van
after spending half the day at the courthouse. They did not respond to questions from waiting journalists. Their lawyer says the judge told them not to discuss their case.

Meanwhile, officials at the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennesee have appealed to President Barack Obama to help get medical treatment and spiritual counseling for the 10 Baptists arrested in Haiti.

A letter to Obama from three top SBC officials on Friday asks for the president to "arrange for a representative from their churches or from the Southern Baptist Convention, or both, to visit them in Haiti as soon as possible."

The group, comprised mostly of Southern Baptists, was acting independently when its members were arrested on January 29 while trying to take 33 children out of Haiti.

Even so, Vice President of Convention Relations Roger Oldham said there is concern the faith's long history of relief efforts could be tainted in some people's minds.

The Americans were charged with kidnapping on Thursday.

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Thursday, February 4, 2010

A Topeka man is among 10 Americans detained in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country after the Jan. 12 earthquake charged with
child kidnapping, according to a Haitian attorney.

Edwin Coq says the Americans also are charged with criminal association. The 10 appeared in court Thursday and were whisked away to a jail in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince.

Coq attended the session and has represented the group here.

Just minutes earlier, an attorney for the Americans in the neighboring Dominican Republic had said he expected nine of the 10 members of an Idaho-based church group were going to be released.