PORT-AU-PRINCE - Ten detained US missionaries in Haiti were charged on 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 Jan. 12 quake. They have denied any wrongdoing and were sent back to a police lock-up to await the judge's decision. 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. Haitian authorities said the group lacked the authorization and travel documents needed to take the children out of the country. 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.
