Six French aid workers imprisoned for abducting African children were released last night after they were pardoned by Chad's President Idriss Déby.
Dominique Aubry, one of the members of the Zoe's Ark charity sentenced to eight years' hard labour by a Chadian court late last year, came out of the prison in northern France where he was serving his sentence.
Four others, including the group's leader, Eric Breteau, were also released. A sixth member, Nadia Merimi is in a hospital near Paris but is no longer in detention, a justice ministry spokesman said.
The six were convicted in Chad of trying to fly 103 African children to Europe without permission. The pardon does not mean that their criminal records are cleared.
The charity workers, who had denied the charges, were flown back to France in late December and were serving their prison sentences there under an agreement with Chad.
In their court testimony in Chad, the six had said they believed they were trying to rescue war orphans from the conflict-torn Darfur region of Chad's eastern neighbour Sudan.
But UN and Chadian officials said most of the children were not orphans and came from Chadian border villages, where their parents had been persuaded to give up their offspring in exchange for promises of education.