France asks Chad to send kidnap convicts home

N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - France asked Chad on Thursday to send home six French aid workers sentenced to eight years' hard labor for trying to kidnap 103 children.

The four men and two women from French humanitarian group Zoe's Ark were arrested in October as they tried to fly the children, aged one to 10, to Europe for fostering with families.

French Justice Minister Rachida Dati formally requested for the six to be transferred to serve their terms in France under a 1976 judicial accord between Paris and its former colony.

"This follows requests by the six convicted French to the French government. The files are being delivered to the Chadian authorities, who will then let the French government know how they intend to respond to this request," Dati's ministry said in a statement.

Zoe's Ark had said it was helping to rescue orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region across Chad's eastern border.

But most of the 103 children were found to have come from families in Chadian border villages who were persuaded to give up the infants with promises of education at local centers.

A Chadian and a Sudanese accused of acting as accomplices to the Zoe's Ark group were sentenced by the court to four years in jail, while two other Chadians were acquitted.

Wednesday's judgment ended a rushed four-day trial which fuelled speculation of a political deal between Chad and its key ally France to send the six home, either through a presidential pardon or under the judicial cooperation accord.

"Just because it is provided for doesn't mean it will happen, because there are conditions for it to take place. At the moment we haven't even received a request," Chadian Justice Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke told Reuters in the capital N'Djamena earlier on Thursday.

NEW TRIAL?

Hard labor no longer exists in France, so a transfer there would effectively commute their sentences to imprisonment.

But France would require Chadian approval before reducing the terms of their sentences, Padacke told RTL radio earlier.

"We have all reason to hope that this transfer will happen," Mario Stasi, one of the aid workers' lawyers, said after meeting French officials at President Nicolas Sarkozy's office in Paris. "We hope in the next few days ... they will be here in France."

The six could face a fresh trial in France over legal suits lodged by European families who had offered to look after the children on arrival in Europe, some of whom diplomats have said paid several thousand euros (dollars) per child.

It was not clear whether repatriation would affect the 4.12 billion CFA franc ($9 million) compensation the court ordered the accused to pay the children's families.

Zoe's Ark is an independent organization that was formed in 2004 to help provide relief during the Asian tsunami. It is believed to have about 50 active volunteers.

The Chad operation, which the group said intended to provide a better future for children orphaned by the war in Darfur, was widely condemned as amateurish in France. But there was shock at the severity of the sentences.

The case has caused embarrassment to France, a key backer of Chadian President Idriss Deby and main contributor of troops to a European Union peace force being prepared for deployment in eastern Chad, where Deby faces armed rebellion.

(Additional reporting by Alain Amontchi in N'Djamena; Thierry Leveque, James Mackenzie, Jean-Baptiste Vey and Gerard Bon in Paris; writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Ibon Villelabeitia)