Prison distress in Chad child row

An angry crowd gathered outside the Abeche courtroom

Sixteen Europeans being held in Chad on child kidnapping and fraud charges have been shown to reporters in Abeche looking distraught and dishevelled.

A BBC correspondent says it had been thought they would be moved to the capital, N'Djamena, for their safety.

But the transfer will not happen immediately, the prosecutor in Abeche, Ahmat Daoud, says.

The group was arrested in the town last week while allegedly trying to smuggle more than 100 children to France.

If they are found guilty, the group face between five and 20 years in prison with hard labour.

The charity behind the flight, Zoe's Ark, said it believed the children were orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

Staff from the UN children's agency Unicef say many of the children, now being kept in an orphanage in Abeche, a town near Chad's border with Darfur, cry at night for their parents and say they are from villages in Chad.

Close to tears

The BBC's Stephanie Hancock in Abeche says journalists were briefly allowed to view the prisoners in custody; they were prevented from talking to them.

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All the foreigners were being held together in one room.

Seated on the floor still dressed in their airline uniforms and charity T-shirts, they appeared extremely dishevelled, she says.

One French prisoner was lying on the floor clearly in a good deal of pain.

A Spanish air hostess was close to tears.

While there were no obvious signs the group had been physically maltreated, one French prisoner gestured that he had been beaten, our reporter says.

Mr Daoud said a request has been made to the Supreme Court in the capital, N'Djamena, to have the group moved there, but "to talk of transferring the prisoners is too early".

"Now the file is at the justice of Abeche and we are reflecting on it, and the possibility of transferring them to a jurisdiction better placed as our jurisdiction here in Abeche needs a lot of support," he told reporters.

"It's a very important file, and very big file, which needs a lot of investigation at a national and international level. There are things which must be investigated outside Chad, especially in France where host families for these children are."

Charges

Correspondents say a small angry crowd gathered outside the courtroom where the charges were brought.

There were no obvious signs the group had been physically maltreated

They made it clear they wanted the group to face justice in Chad.

"We have a country; we have a justice system; we have everything. We want them to be judged in Chad - we don't want them to be taken to Europe," one told the BBC.

Nine French prisoners, six members of Zoe's Ark and three journalists, were charged with attempted child abduction and fraud.

The seven Spanish air crew were charged as accomplices.

Under Chadian law, child kidnapping carries a sentence of five to 20 years hard labour, while the fraud charges could see the group face a further five years in jail.

One Chadian has so far also been charged as an accomplice.

Another European - a Belgian pilot - is in detention in the capital, N'Djamena, but is not reported to be facing charges at present.

'Exploiting'

A senior French opposition MP told the BBC he feared Chad was trying to exploit the situation for political purposes.

The children are not being treated for any serious illnesses or injuries

"I know some of these people who are working in Darfur, and they are very generous people, and probably they have made several mistakes - it's not easy to understand," said Jack Lang, a former Socialist minister.

"And the French government in the first time was not against this operation, it was a humanitarian operation.

"But now it appears that the Chadian government wants to create with France difficult relations."

Spain's foreign ministry said it "disagreed" with the charges against its citizens.

The charity insists it was trying in good faith to take endangered children abroad for medical treatment.

But aid workers said they were not treating any of the children for any serious illnesses or injuries.