Baptist Missionaries Charged with Kidnapping and Criminal Conspiracy

This story was a little confusing today--at first the missionaries' lawyer had indicated that nine of the group were expected to be freed, but almost immediately thereafter came this news:

As she entered the closed-door session, mission organiser Laura Silsby claimed: ‘We expect God's will be done. And we will be released.’

But there was confusion as the hearing drew to a close with a lawyer representing the group claiming that he expected nine of the ten Americans to be released.

But minutes later, the five men and five women were led looking grim and unsmiling to a bus and were driven back to jail.

After announcing the charges, Haitian Deputy Prosecutor Jean Ferge Joseph told the defendants that their case was being sent to an investigative judge.

‘The judge can free you but he can also continue to hold you for further proceedings,’ he added.

The Americans, who insist they did nothing wrong, were still behind bars last night awaiting the investigating judge’s decision.

The case has become a flashpoint for fears that child traffickers could profit from the chaos in Haiti, one of the world’s poorest countries, in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake.

(Emphasis mine.) As I posted yesterday regarding this case, I tend to think these people probably started out with good intentions and are mostly guilty of not fully thinking through what they were doing. But besides my altruistic opinion, I also know that sometimes religious groups have taken this paternalistic approach towards indoctrinating children "in their own interest", up to and including kidnapping them from parents who they perceived as not providing the right (read: religiously-correct) influences.

I definitely mean to follow this story, and especially the trial, to see what defense unfolds, since, based on the clip from CBS I posted earlier, I have the impression that the story the missionaries have provided does not necessarily gibe with all the surrounding facts. Also, the odd story earlier that implied that nine of the ten were to be released puts an interesting focus on Laura Silsby, the leader of the group, and presumably the one who would not have been released (and possibly the person liable to be thrown under the proverbial bus come trial-time if they choose to seek separate representation.)