The Elysee presidential palace said in a statement that French President Nicolas Sarkozy left for Chad early Sunday to discuss with Idriss Deby, President of Chad about the situation of the 17 Europeans held for an allegedly attempt of kidnapping 103 African children.

The Europeans were detained late last month in Abeche when they tried to fly out of the country African children in order to place them into host French families.

Among the Europeans, nine were French citizens, six of them claiming to be members of Zoe’s Ark, a charity organization. The other three French citizens were journalists.

According to media resources Sarkozy will meet Derby in the capital N’Djamena in order to discuss “the situation of our compatriots and the other European citizens being prosecuted.”

The President travels along with Rama Yade, France’s junior minister for human rights, and is expected to arrive in Chad at 2 p.m. local time.

Zoe’s Ark maintains its declaration regarding the children saying that they are orphans that come from the Darfur war zone where fights began in 2003 and forced thousands of people to flee to Chad.

The children were interviewed by aid workers who said on Thursday that most of them come from villages in Chad and not from Darfur.

Among the detained there’s also the flight crew of a Spanish air company and a Belgian pilot. They too face conviction for complicity.

On Thursday Deby said on television that he hopes the flight crew and the journalists will be freed.

Eleven of the detained were brought on Saturday to a court in the capital of Chad, for a pre-trial. Among them it was the leader of Zoe’s Ark, Eric Breteau and four of the flight crew members, wearing their red flight uniforms.

Along with the 17 Europeans four Chadians were arrested in Abeche last week.

They were flown in the capital after the case was moved here, according to a spokesman of Chad’s government, CNN reports.

The six members of the organization are already charged with kidnapping.

The children, with ages between one and ten, are kept in an Abeche orphanage until the officials figure out where they are coming from.

Inah Kaloga, Red Cross spokeswoman said to CNN that it may be difficult to determine the children backgrounds because of their ages, and some of them may never return to their families.

French media suggested on Sunday that the French president may bring the three journalists home aboard his presidential plane and that probably will make a stop in Madrid to drop the Spanish flight crew.