Ndjamena/Nairobi - A court in Chad Wednesday sentenced six French aid workers to eight years of forced labour for attempting to kidnap more than 100 African children, reports said. The members of L'Arche de Zoe (Zoe's Ark) were arrested in late October as they attempted to resettle to Europe 103 children they said were Darfuri orphans.
Further investigations showed the children had lived with at least one parent and did not hail from Sudan's troubled region.
The aid workers had told the court in the trial which began last Friday that they had been misled by Chadian intermediaries facilitating the orphans' move.
The Chadian chief prosecutor, Beassoum Ben Ngassoro, had asked that the six French nationals be sentenced to between seven and 11 years behind bars.
The prosecutor also demanded that the accused pay 88,000 dollars in damages for each child they allegedly attempted to ferry out - in all more than 9 million dollars.
"I don't have a single doubt that the accused are guilty," he said in court in the Chadian capital Ndjamena before the trial wrapped up Wednesday.
One Chadian and one Sudanese were sentenced to four years for complicity, reports said, while two Sudanese were found not guilty of the same charge.
The six French nationals could serve their prison terms in France as per a deal between the two countries.
The scandal has soured Franco-Chadian relations, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy's call to have the six tried in France sparking outrage and protests on the streets of Ndjamena.
