Monday, December 31, 2007

Welcome Home! Here's Your Cell...

More details emerge from the saga of the Zoe 6. They have in fact been jailed upon their return to France; the local prosecutor has no intention of seeking to have the sentences or the charges dropped; the 6 appear in court January 14 so the judge can alter the "hard labor" portion of their sentences, which is against French law. Any alteration to the sentences must, according to treaty, be acceptable to Chad.

The lawyers for the 6 howl about 'totalitarian justice', as in, how could France abide a Chadian sentence? Of course this thing is much bigger than the Z6; there are international relations to consider.

Also, it really does seem true: they were kidnapping a hundred Chadian children, not saving Sudanese orphans. Perhaps they were duped; perhaps they are part of an international children smuggling ring. In any case, if that was your child or mine, you'd be inclined to see justice served on those who were toting the child to the airport to be whisked out of the country.

The Z6 may be patsies; probably some of them are. New prediction: new trials for all, and some will go free. Some will not, because they were in positions where they should have known what they were involved in. They were the ones who met with the intermediaries and took responsibility for the children.

WashPost (via AFP) keeps us up to date:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hC2TN8vBIOi6ojg52JJcPWsmYedQ

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