{"id":3158,"date":"2012-12-03T20:43:15","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T20:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.againstchildtrafficking.org\/?p=3158"},"modified":"2012-12-03T20:43:15","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T20:43:15","slug":"french-ngo-members-face-trial-for-smuggling-fake-darfur-orphans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/french-ngo-members-face-trial-for-smuggling-fake-darfur-orphans\/","title":{"rendered":"French NGO members face trial for smuggling fake Darfur orphans"},"content":{"rendered":"
Source:<\/div>\n

http:\/\/www.english.rfi.fr
\nArticle<\/a> published the Monday 03 December 2012\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

AFP By RFI<\/a><\/p>\n

The trial of a group of French NGO members accused of trying to smuggle 103 children out of Chad for adoption on France began Monday. But the two principal defendants are not in the dock \u2013 they\u2019re living and working in South Africa.<\/p>\n

In October 2007 Chadian police arrested 17 members of French NGO l\u2019Arche de Zo\u00e9 <\/em>at Ab\u00e9ch\u00e9 airport, in eastern Chad, in the company of 103 children wearing bandages and plasters, although they were not injured.<\/p>\n

The group claimed that the children were orphans from Darfur, the wartorn region in southern Sudan that borders on Chad, but most of them turned out to be Chadian and hardly any were actually orphans.<\/p>\n

Nine French citizens were charged with kidnapping minors and fraud, while seven Spaniards charged with complicity but later released along with the pilot, a Belgian, and some journalists accompanying them.<\/p>\n

Six of the French were later sentenced to eight years\u2019 forced labour and ordered to pay 6.3 million euros to the children\u2019s families but then repatriated to France where they were to serve their sentences.<\/p>\n

In march 2008 Chadian President Idriss D\u00e9by pardoned them, leading to their release in France.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s trial concerns charges made in France.<\/p>\n

Six Arche de Zo\u00e9<\/em> members are accused of illegal involvement in adoption procedures, attempting to help minors enter France illegally and fraud and could face 10 years in prison and\/or heavy fines.<\/p>\n

About 20 of the 250 families who were expecting to adopt Darfur refugee children are plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

The accused are the NGO\u2019s chairman Eric Breteau, his partner Emilie Lelouch, the group\u2019s doctor Philippe Van Winkelberg, logistics organiser Alain P\u00e9ligat, journalist Agn\u00e8s Peleran and Christophe Letien, an Arche de Zo\u00e9<\/em> member who stayed in France at the time of the operation and is held to have been the \u201cde facto treasurer\u201d by the prosecution.<\/p>\n

Breteau and Lelouch announced before the trial that they would not appear and would not be represented by lawyers.<\/p>\n

They are in South Africa, where Breteau, who is on probation, runs a guest house while Lelouch is reported to have set up a circus with local performers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Organisers told families that they could save \u201cat least 1,000\u201d Darfur orphans, one of the plaintiffs, Citane Ferrer, told RFI.<\/p>\n

After they had contacted the organisation they were assured that there was no legal obstacle for adoption, she claims, and were invited to a meeting where a film was shown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did all they could to attract us, to get us really involved in the project,\u201d she says. \u201cIn the matter of a few months it\u2019s as if they had robbed us of our humanity, they played so much on our humane feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Breteau continued to insist that the children were orphans from Darfur when released from prison in 2008.<\/p>\n

He and Lelouch claim that no-one, including the courts, has listened to their version of the story and that they are convinced that the present trial would be no different.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: http:\/\/www.english.rfi.fr Article published the Monday 03 December 2012\u00a0\u00a0 AFP By RFI The trial of a group of French NGO members accused of trying to smuggle 103 children out of Chad for adoption on France began Monday. But the two principal defendants are not in the dock \u2013 they\u2019re living and working in South Africa…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3158"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3160,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions\/3160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.againstchildtrafficking.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}