Chadians Ask for the Freed Europeans to be Trialed in Chad

On Thursday protesters gathered on the streets of capital of Chad, N’Djamena asking for the seven Europeans that were freed to return and be trialed in Chad.

The freed Europeans were detained along with other ten two weeks ago when they were stopped from flying out of Chad 103 African children in order to place them into foster French families.

Protesters were holding placards criticizing French President Nicolas Sarkozy because he came on Sunday and negotiated the release of the three French journalists and four Spanish air stewardesses. Mr.Sarkozy vowed to return and bring back the other ten left.

According to Reuters one of the 100 demonstrators said: “We’re protesting against Sarkozy, who wants to extradite these people to France.”

The protesters demonstrated outside N'Djamena’s court house and chanted: “Justice in Chad.”

In Chad protests are rare, and mostly they are organized by the government.

The six French members of the organization “Zoe’s Ark” were taken on Thursday to the court house to appear in front of an investigating judge. The charges they face are child abduction and fraud along with other four Chadian nationals.

The legal authorities would decide in the next 48 hours if they should be prosecuted in a civil or criminal case.

The members of the organization sustain that the children where orphans from Darfur war zone, but U.N. officials say that most of them are from the villages from the border of Chad with Sudan.

Sarkozy promised on Tuesday to “get those still there, whatever they may have done,” only two days after he promised Chadian President Idriss Deby that France will respect the justice system in Chad.

This declaration urged Chadian ministers to insist that the Europeans should be trialed in Chad.

One of the protesters said: “President Nicolas Sarkozy ... has become a true champion of the French child traffickers. We ask Nicolas Sarkozy to bring back the seven accomplices so they can be tried in Chad together with the other traffickers, who will remain in Chad.”

If they are found guilty in Chad the Europeans face 20 years of hard labor in jail. In France the penalty should be less severe.

Lawyers for the six French detainees said that their clients efforts where misunderstood and that they only wanted to “save children from horror and death”, Reuters quotes.