Former jailed Baptist says if he’s innocent, Silsby is, too

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (BP)–A Baptist pastor who spent nearly three weeks in a Haiti jail says it “makes no sense” for him and eight other volunteers to be freed while the group’s 10th member and group leader, Laura Silsby, remains in jail.

Paul Thompson, pastor of Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, made the comments one week after reports first circulated that all charges had been dropped against the nine freed Americans. Haiti officials quickly denied the reports, saying the charges still stood.

The 10 were arrested in late January and charged with child kidnapping, allegedly because they did not have the proper documents to take 33 children to an orphanage being started in the Dominican Republic. The group says they had the paperwork Haiti officials told them to have.

Although Thompson and eight others were released and allowed to fly back to the United States, the charges technically still stood when they left the earthquake-ravaged country.

“I’m not satisfied until Laura is released,” Thompson told Baptist Press. “What I’ve been telling everyone around her is that if Paul Thompson is innocent, then Laura Silsby is innocent.”

In mid-April Kyle Hines, a spokesman for Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, told CNN he had been told by the U.S. State Department that the charges of child kidnapping were dropped. The Associated Press quoted a lawyer in Haiti who also said the charges were dropped.

But Haiti, led by its attorney general, denied the reports. Another Haitian official, Judge Bernard Saint-Vil — the presiding judge in the case — told AP no decision had been made.

Thompson said he doesn’t really know what to make of the conflicting reports, although he is confident the charges will be dropped.

“The word we got from Sen. Risch’s office is the charges have been dropped, and until he hears differently he stands by the news they got from the State Department,” Thompson said, speculating that semantics may have played a role and that Haiti may have told someone the charges “would be dropped” instead of “have been dropped.”

Regarding the fact that he is free and Silsby entered her 84th straight day in jail Friday, Thompson said, “It makes no sense.”

Silsby is a member of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho.

Courtesy of
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=32779&ref=BPNews-RSSFeed0423

Haiti Judge: Charges Against All 10 Volunteers Stand

 

Despite news on the contrary, the Haitian judge overseeing the case of the ten American volunteers who tried to take children out of the country said Monday that all charges remain standing.

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said he did not make any decision yet to drop charges for any of the U.S. Christian volunteers. He said he is still considering the case of the group’s leader, Laura Silsby, who is still being held in Port-au-Prince, and the nine other Americans who were released on condition they return to Haiti if further questioning was needed.

Saint-Vil’s statement contradicts that of Idaho Sen. Jim Risch. He said though a spokesman last week that the State Department informed him that Haiti had dropped all charges against nine of the volunteers, most of whom are residents in Idaho.

The ten U.S. volunteers were arrested in January while trying to take 33 Haitian children across the border to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. They were jailed in Port-au-Prince and charged with child kidnapping and criminal association.

Haiti said the team did not have government permission to take children out of the country, raising concerns of human trafficking.

In February, eight of the volunteers were conditionally released and the ninth was freed in March. Silsby is still being held for further investigation over previous trips to Haiti and an earlier attempt to take dozens of children to the Dominican Republic.

The Haitian judge has until early May to make a decision on whether to release Silsby or order a trial.

Courtesy of Christian Post at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100420/haiti-judge-charges-against-all-10-volunteers-stand/index.html