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| Chad sends French convicts home | |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Six French aid workers jailed in Chad on child trafficking charges will be repatriated on Friday, a Chadian official says. | Six French aid workers jailed in Chad on child trafficking charges will be repatriated on Friday, a Chadian official says. |
| The six were sentenced to eight years' hard labour in Chad on Wednesday for attempting to kidnap 103 children. | The six were sentenced to eight years' hard labour in Chad on Wednesday for attempting to kidnap 103 children. |
| French Justice Minister Rachida Dati had requested that the six Zoe's Ark charity workers serve their sentences in France under a 1976 accord. | French Justice Minister Rachida Dati had requested that the six Zoe's Ark charity workers serve their sentences in France under a 1976 accord. |
| The aid workers have insisted they were trying to evacuate orphans from Darfur. | |
| However, most of the children were found to be from Chad, which borders the western Sudanese region, and had parents who were still alive. | |
| The Chadian official who announced the imminent repatriation on Friday spoke on condition of anonymity. | |
| Chad's Justice Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke told reporters: "I have responded favourably to the transfer request from France this morning". | |
| The case sparked outrage in the former French colony in central Africa. | |
| Ms Dati said she had formally asked Chad for the four men and two women to be transferred to serve their prison sentences in their native country. | |
| But legal proceedings would be required in France to amend the sentences, because the country has no punishment of hard labour. |