Paris, 2007 Nov 5, Al-Manar
 
Seven Europeans among 17 detained for over a week in an alleged attempt to kidnap 103 African children have been released and left Chad with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Europeans - among them nine French citizens - were arrested October 25 when a charity calling itself Zoe's Ark was stopped from flying the children to Europe. The group said the children were orphans from Sudan's Darfur region. It said it intended to place them with host families.

However, France's Foreign Ministry and others have cast doubt on the group's claims. Aid workers who interviewed the children said Thursday most of them had been living with adults they considered their parents and came from villages on the Chadian-Sudanese border region.

The 17 originally detained included six French charity workers, three French journalists and the crew of the plane that the group planned to use to take the children to France. The crew was made up of Spaniards and a Belgian pilot.

The six charity workers have been charged with kidnapping and are still in detention. The other four - three Spanish crew and the Belgian pilot of the plane - are being held on accessory charges.

Sarkozy met with Chad's leader, Idriss Deby, trading back slaps and cheek kisses, before leaving Chad on his official jet with the three French journalists and four flight attendants from Spain.