Kidnapping: French court sends charity workers to jail

Creteil: Six French charity workers were sentenced by a French court for eight years in prison on Monday, following their conviction in Chad for trying to kidnap 103 children claiming they are orphans from Darfur.

In December they were sentenced in the central African country to hard labour for eight years. They were later flown back to France under a cooperation agreement between the two countries.

The court in Creteil was requested to adapt their sentences because France does not have forced labour, leading it to convert the sentence to eight years in prison.

The group said they were rescuing orphans from Sudan's Darfur region, a conflict zone across Chad's eastern border, and they intended to fly them to Europe for fostering there.

Most of the children were found to have come from families in Chadian border villages who were persuaded to give up their offspring in exchange for promises of education.