 Adopt a Child, Save a Life?
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BACKGROUND: In July 2007, I profiled a French charity group, called the Arche de Zoé, that was planning on evacuating children from the western Sudanese region of Darfur to France, to be taken in by French famlies, and eventually adopted as French children.
On October 25, 2007, authorities in Chad stopped a plane full of 103 children from taking off towards France. They arrested, tried and convicted six members of the Arche de Zoe organization for child traffiking. They were transferred to France to serve out their sentece of eight years of prison with hard labor. On January 28, 2008, a French judge converted the sentence into eight years of prison in France.
Click here to listen to the original profile of the group.
TRANSCRIPT: Converting the Chadian sentence
Helene Breteau: "C'est un scandale!"
Helene Breteau shouts angrily in response to the verdict handed down Monday [January 14, 2008] by a French judge against her son, Eric Breteau, and five other members of the charity group he founded
Hello I'm Sarah Elzas, reporting from the courthouse in Créteil, just south of Paris, where a Judge converted a Chadian sentence of 8 years of hard labor for kidnapping of children, into eight years of prison in France
At the end of the court session, the audience erupted with shouting. They then took it outside to talk to the media
Helene Breteau: "Des humanitaires, des gens complètement désintéressés, des gens courageux…"
They were just brave charity workers, shouts Helene Breteau. Her son, Eric Breteau, founded Zoe's Ark with the intention of bringing orphaned children from Darfur to France to be taken in by French families. Instead at the end of October they were arrested in Chad with 103 children and accused of kidnapping them. A Chadian court convicted them at the end of December.
Through an agreement between France and Chad, the six were repatriated to serve out their sentence in France. Two weeks ago their lawyers argued that the Chadian sentence should be thrown out because the trial was unfair. Lawyer Gilbert Colalrd says that the French judge's decision is validating the Chadian Justice system:
Collard: "Les juges français ont donné un label de bon fonctionnement démocratique a la justice française."
The French judges have pronounced that Chadian Justice system to be democratic, he said. And we all know that's not true, he continued.
The French judge didn't have much of a choice but to validate the Chadian decision in this case—he had no jurisdiction to re-try the case. If he had decided to do that, it would have brought France into a diplomatic row with Chad.
One thing the lawyers argued against was that all six of the members got the same sentence, even though not all of them were equally implicated. Supporters of the organization were particularly angered that Nadia Merimi, a nurse brought in late in the operation to take care of the children, was convicted the same as the president of the organization
Souad Merimi: "I cannot accept that, she doesn't deserve that"
Souad Merimi, Nadia's sister, was practically in tears after hearing the decision:
Merimi: "I'm very disappointed about the French justice. I think that we were expecting a lot. And today we are- you know. We are really disappointed. I've never expected that from my country. I'm very disappointed."
Lelouch: "I was very angry, very angry. And uh- I was not surprised"
Jeannine Lelouch is Emilie Lelouch's mother—Emilie is Eric Breteau's assistant, one of the founder's of the operation in Darfur. Janine Lelouch says her daughter was expecting this result, to some extent:
Lelouch: "She thought she was going to be condemned, but not to eight years, I think. She thought three years, four years. But not eight years"
The lawyers for the six say they will appeal, though it's unlikely they can change anything. There may be appeals to the Chadian president Idris Deby to pardon them.
Even so, the charity members aren't finished with courtrooms: Four of them face a French charge for falsifying adoptions and fraud. They could receive up to ten more years of prison and hundreds of thousands of euros in fines.
With Today in France, this is Sarah Elzas reporting from Créteil, just south of Paris.
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