French Aid Workers on Trial in Chad Children Case

Members of a humanitarian group called Zoe´s Ark face abduction and fraud charges.

Six French aid workers accused of trying to kidnap 103 children went on trial on Friday in Chad, where there is popular pressure for them to be punished despite expectations of a diplomatic deal to send them home.

The French citizens, members of a humanitarian group called Zoe's Ark, appeared calm but serious as they stood before the judges in a packed courtroom in the Chadian capital N'Djamena. There was tight security around the court.

In formal charges that were read out they were accused of abduction and fraud.

They were arrested in late October as they tried to fly the children, aged 1-10, out of eastern Chad to Europe. Chadian authorities said they had no permission to do this.

The six have denied the charges, saying they were on a humanitarian mission to fly sick and destitute orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region for fostering with European families. Three Chadians and a Sudanese national are being tried along with them as accomplices.

If convicted, the six could face forced labour sentences of between five to 20 years. But many believe they will be allowed to serve jail terms in France under bilateral accords, or benefit from a pardon from Chadian President Idriss Deby.

The case has embarrassed France, which supports Deby's rule in landlocked, oil-producing Chad. It has troops stationed in its former colony and is providing the bulk of a European Union peacekeeping force to be deployed in east Chad in January.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has taken a personal interest in the case and has said he would prefer the French to be tried in France. He discussed the case with Deby at a Europe-Africa summit in Lisbon earlier this month.

Dozens of armed riot police were on standby outside the courtroom in the dusty Chadian capital, where angry protests have occurred against the six and against what many Chadians see as French interference in the case.

A defence lawyer for the six, Gilbert Collard, told reporters just before the trial started that politics was "omnipresent" in the case, but he hoped for a fair trial.

"ANARCHIC BUT GENEROUS"

Collard said the accused should be seen as "humanitarian workers whose behaviour was a bit anarchic but nonetheless profoundly generous".

Contradicting the accused's assertions that the children were Darfuri orphans, Chadian and U.N. officials said inquiries showed most of the 103 had at least one living parent and came from villages on the Chad-Sudan border.

The parents of several children said they had been duped by the Zoe's Ark workers into giving up their infants with the promise of schooling for them in east Chad -- but that there had never been any mention of taking them away to France.

Sarkozy travelled to Chad early last month to secure the release of seven other Europeans originally arrested with the Zoe's Ark members. Four other Europeans were also subsequently released, angering Chadians who complained of French meddling.

"We are a sovereign state, despite our poverty, and the French people should respect us," said Ahmat Yacoub, spokesman for the Supreme Court. "For our pride, our government's pride, they should serve their sentences here if convicted."

"There is politics disguised as law in this case."