The leader of the ten U.S. volunteers who were accused of illegally removing dozens of children from Haiti was convicted on Monday, but then immediately released to return to the United States. The judge reasoned that she had already served her time in prison and was therefore free to return home.
Last April, the judge dropped the charges of kidnapping minors against all ten volunteers, but as the leader of the missionaries, Laura Silsby was ordered to face further charges of “arranging irregular travel.”
The case has been dragging on since January, when Silsby and her fellow volunteers from a Baptist church in Idaho were arrested for trying to transport thirty-three children to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. The children lacked the proper documentation for their removal from Haiti. The volunteers were attempting to help the children whose lives had been devastated by the massive earthquake in Port-au-Prince.
During the trial it turned out that the children they thought were orphans all had at least one living parent. The parents had voluntarily given their children to the Americans in the hope it would lead to a better life for them.
UNICEF estimates that more than 20,000 children lost their parents in the quake and its aftermath, says the Christian Post.
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