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Eight missionaries freed in Haiti arrive back in U.S.

McClatchy Newspapers

February 17, 2010 03:45 PM

Laura Silsby, 40, left, flashes a thumbs up to reporters as she and Charisa Coulter, 24, both of Boise, Idaho, sit in a Haitian police truck taking them back to jail in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010. The ten Americans detained in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country after the earthquake, were charged with child kidnapping and criminal association, after a judge found sufficient evidence to file the charges, according to their Haitian lawyer Edwin Coq. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Laura Silsby, 40, left, flashes a thumbs up to reporters as she and Charisa Coulter, 24, both of Boise, Idaho, sit in a Haitian police truck taking them back to jail in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010. The ten Americans detained in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country after the earthquake, were charged with child kidnapping and criminal association, after a judge found sufficient evidence to file the charges, according to their Haitian lawyer Edwin Coq. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) Associated Press
Laura Silsby, 40, left, flashes a thumbs up to reporters as she and Charisa Coulter, 24, both of Boise, Idaho, sit in a Haitian police truck taking them back to jail in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010. The ten Americans detained in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country after the earthquake, were charged with child kidnapping and criminal association, after a judge found sufficient evidence to file the charges, according to their Haitian lawyer Edwin Coq. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos) Associated Press

Eight of the 10 U.S. missionairies who were accused of child kidnapping in Haiti were released Wednesday by a Haitian judge.

The judge said the eight could return to the United States without posting bail as long as they agreed to return to Haiti for any more questions.

The two missionairies the judge said would not be released were Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter.

The eight former detainees boarded a U.S. military plane Wednesday in Port-au-Prince and landed just after midnight today in Miami and were taken to customs.

They were detained Jan. 29 while trying to take 33 orphans to the Dominican Republic without proper documentation. At that time aid officials were urging a halt to short-cut adoptions after the earthquake.

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said the U.S. State Department was working to handle necessary paperwork so the group could get through customs. Under normal circumstances, the Americans would be responsible for their own flights after being released from a Haitian jail.

Read the full story at idahostatesman.com

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