French aid staff freed from jail

Dr Van Winkelberg (centre) was one of the first of the six aid workers freed

All six members of a charity convicted of kidnapping 103 African children in Chad have been freed from their French prison, France's Justice Ministry says.

The six, from the aid group Zoe's Ark, had initially been sentenced to eight years of hard labour in Chad, but were later moved to France.

Earlier Monday, Chad's President Idriss Deby pardoned the six.

They had said they were taking orphans from Darfur but most of the children were from Chad and were not orphans.

Two of the aid workers may still face criminal charges in France, and several law suits have been lodged against the charity by disappointed foster families.

Chad's government has also said it wants the children's families to receive compensation either from the aid workers or France.

Strengthening relations

President Deby also pardoned a Chadian intermediary for Zoe's Ark, Mahamat Dagot, who had been sentenced to four years of hard labour for complicity in the attempted kidnap of children.

The aid workers always insisted they acted in good faith

A Sudanese refugee who also helped the aid workers has not been pardoned from his four-year sentence because, French news agency AFP reported, he had not asked for one.

The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Paris says the pardons come at a time of strengthening relations between Chad and France, which helped Mr Deby beat back a rebel assault to overthrow him in February.

The six French aid workers were detained in Chad on 25 October last year at the airport in the eastern town of Abeche as they were about to put the 103 children on a flight to France.

They said the children were orphans or refugees from the Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

An investigation found almost all the children to be Chadian and to have at least one living parent.