A Haitian judge authorized the release today of eight of the ten Americans arrested in the country several weeks ago on child-abduction charges, keeping the two remaining members of the group for additional questioning. Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said he came to his decision after parents of some of the 33 children who were with the group of ten explained they had willingly handed their children over to them.
The group was arrested on January 29, a few weeks after the devastating January 12 earthquake, when they attempted to take the group of children into the Dominican Republic without authorization. The Americans, five of whom were from a Baptist congregation in Idaho, said they were planning to bring the children to an orphanage in the bordering country.
