Paparazzi throng for Sarkozy trip Chad court jails French aid staff


A court in Chad has sentenced six French aid workers to eight years of hard labour for trying to take more than 100 children out of the country.

The six employees of French charity Zoe's Ark were arrested in October.

The charity said at the time it was evacuating refugee children orphaned by the conflict in Darfur so they could be cared for by families in Europe.

Most of the children were however found to be from Chad, which borders Darfur, and with parents who were still alive.

The case has sparked outrage in the former French colony.




The evidence of the defence was not even taken into account. It's absolute rubbish.
-- Christophe Letien, Zoe's Ark

The French government says it will now ask the Chadian government to return its aid workers to France.

Under a 30-year-old agreement between the two nations, offenders can be returned to their native country to serve their sentences.

Diplomatic sources in Chad say a transfer could happen soon, although the authorities there are not obliged to agree and France has no punishment of hard labour.



'Unacceptable' :

The verdict was delivered on the fourth day of a trial that started on 21 December.

The court found the French nationals guilty of the "attempted kidnap of children, breaching their civil rights".

It also found the group guilty of "absconding without payment" of bills accrued in their attempt to fly the children out of eastern Chad town of Abeche.

According to AFP news agency, the head of Zoe's Ark, Eric Breteau, and the Sudanese national, Souleimane Ibrahim Adam, were found guilty of the further charge of using forged documents.

A spokesman for Zoe's Ark, Christophe Letien, told the BBC he was "stunned, sickened and confused by this judgement".

He said the fact the defendants were handed the same sentence for different responsibilities proved "that it was a totally unfair trial".

"The evidence of the defence was not even taken into account. It's absolute rubbish," he said.

A lawyer for one of the aid workers, Olivier Desandre-Navarre, said justice had not been done:

"We could have not pleaded, we could have done nothing. We have the feeling the result would have been the same. They didn't take anything into account. They've condemned everyone, to the same sentence, to the same sanctions. It's an unacceptable decision."

Hunger strike

A Chadian and a Sudanese national who were also on trial were each sentenced to four years in prison.

Two other Chadians accused in the child-trafficking case were acquitted.

The French nationals briefly went on hunger strike in December to protest at their treatment.

Earlier this month, Chadian authorities said they had dropped the case against another 12 people initially held with the French aid workers.

The 12 - including French journalists and Spanish flight crew - had already been allowed to leave Chad.

The United Nations children's charity, Unicef, has described the French charity's mission to fly children out of Chad as illegal under international law.

French officials also described Zoe's Ark's actions as "illegal and irresponsible".

Mr Breteau say he and his team genuinely believed they were rescuing orphans from Darfur and have accused their local contacts of duping them.

Some 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the conflict in Darfur between local rebel groups and militias backed by the government in Khartoum.

The government's Janjaweed militia is also blamed for forcing some 2m people from their homes, many of whom now live in Chad as refugees.









Photographers are stalking the Egyptian resort of Luxor, after Nicolas Sarkozy arrived there to holiday with his new girlfriend, former model Carla Bruni.

Holding hands with Ms Bruni, the French president waved at onlookers as they arrived at their luxury hotel.

But security is tight with plainclothes guards deployed in the town and two journalists were briefly detained on Monday night after filming the hotel.

Mr Sarkozy, 52, divorced his wife of 11 years, Cecilia, in October.

He was first pictured in the French media with Ms Bruni, 39, in mid-December during a visit to Disneyland Paris.

Private jet

The former model, who has been previously linked to men including Mick Jagger, Donald Trump and Eric Clapton, began a career as a singer after quitting the world of fashion.


The couple travelled to Egypt in an entourage reportedly including friends and relatives. They arrived on a private jet, courtesy of Mr Sarkozy's friend, the French billionaire Vincent Bollore.

To avoid the photographers' lenses, the pair boarded in a private aircraft hangar in France.

On their touchdown in Luxor, heavy security prevented the media approaching and an official photograph was released by local authorities.

It was reported that the couple were to visit archaeological sights around Luxor, which is on the banks of the Nile, on Christmas Day.

They were then to travel to another resort, Sharm el-Sheikh, on Thursday, French media say, although French authorities have refused to confirm the reports, saying it is a private matter.

Mr Sarkozy is then due to make a formal state visit to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo before flying back to France to see in the New Year.