Eight Baptists Freed; Puello in Panama?

Advance apologies to Corbett list readers for any duplication of news...

See a link/and a bit of a clip from today's Reuters story, followed by a Christian Science Monitor blog posting(below) regarding the release of 8 members of US Baptist group that has been jailed for some time on charges of possible trafficking, following the group's attempts to pick up Haitian children to transport them to the Dominican Republic.

This blog has posted extensively on the Laura Silsby- New Life Children's Refuge orphanage project - and on the ongoing manhunt for Jorge Torres Puello (also named Orellana) who posed as a Dominican lawyer helping the Baptist group. Interpol has an arrest warrant out for Puello, who called into the Associated Press earlier today to say he was now in Panama, and planned to return to El Salvador to fight against charged of trafficking.

"The whole world will know I am innocent," he told the AP. He also repeated his claim that he never met the Silsby group before offering his help after they were detained in jail in Haii. He just wanted to help, he told reporters the week before his own identity came to light -- as a wanted trafficker, not a lawyer.

In Haiti, investigating Judge Bernard Sainvil decided to release the 8 Americans but hold Silsby and her assistant, Charisa Coulter in order to look more deeply into any prior possible link with Puello. The Idaho duo had been working for nine months to establish an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Silsby had visited Haiti before and had contacts in the Haitian missionary community that she's been communicating with about her orphanage plans.

Meanwhile, the CSM blog post confirms what Haiti's teledjol (gossip mill) has been saying: that US-based Christian groups, including Christian Defense Coalition, have been intensvely lobbying for release the Baptist group, while US government officials have supported Haiti's right to pursue the rule of law without running interference into the invesigation. Haiti's lawyers responded to the appeal for 'compassion' in releasing the 8 Americans who were deemed, if not innocent, then naive and possibly manipulated by Silsby and her colleague, regarding their knowledge and intentions in the Haiti rescue-the-children affair.


Haiti to Free Eight Americans

By REUTERS
Published: February 17, 2010
Filed at 5:46 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Eight American missionaries left a Haitian jail on Wednesday after a judge signed an order freeing them, but two of their colleagues were detained for further questioning on charges of kidnapping children.

The 10 Americans, most of whom are members of a Baptist Church in Idaho, were arrested last month on charges that they tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the country without proper documentation after the devastating January 12 earthquake in Haiti.

The judge found no evidence of criminal intent among the eight who were freed. But he ordered group leader Laura Silsby and another woman, Charisa Coulter, held for further questioning about their previous trips to Haiti.

The Americans were released one by one and were headed to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince.

(full story here)

and The Christian Science Monitor recap of the Reuters story, plus a few comments by people on the release...


Haiti judge frees 8 missionaries, keeps 2
02.17.10
The Christian Science Monitor global news blog

Blog: Haiti ambassador: 'compassion' for 10 American missionaries Haiti judge advises release of Americans charged with kidnapping Haiti 'orphan' rescue mission:

Adoption or child trafficking? “I am extremely disturbed that two of the missionaries are being left behind,” says Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, which has been lobbying the Haitian government on the missionaries’ behalf. “They operated as a group, they worked as a group – it almost seems punitive or some kind of a payback to hold two and release the eight.”

Charisa Coulter and Laura Silsby, the financially troubled leader of the group, are being kept for further investigation, Judge Bernard Sainvil said. It was unclear if they still faced charges of child abduction and criminal conspiracy, which can carry prison terms of up to 15 years.

“Eight of my clients will be set free,” lawyer Aviol Fleurant told AFP. “The judge wants to question two of my clients because they were in Haiti before the earthquake.”

[....]

The eight freed today will be allowed to return to the US immediately but are required to return for any legal proceedings if required, the BBC reports.

[....]

In a bizarre twist to the case. it was revealed that a man who briefly served as the group's legal adviser is wanted on people smuggling charges in the US and El Salvador. Jorge Puello has since disappeared, telling the Associated Press today that he was in Panama, and the group's Haitian attorney has accused him of absconding with most of the money relatives of the Americans gave to Mr. Puello for his legal fees.
"He was supposed to give me $40,000 and he gave me $10,000 and he stole $30,000 and he disappeared," Aviol Fleurant, the Haitian attorney, told the AP.

The group also has been embarrassed by reports that Ms. Silsby recently defaulted on a $358,000 home and had outstanding complaints from employees over unpaid wages, state liens on a company bank account, and lawsuits in small claims court, the New York Times reported.

“I think that if it was publicly known to all involved that Ms. Silsby had some of these issues in her past, I do not think she would have been the spokesperson and leader of the group,” says the Christian Defense Coalition’s Rev. Mahoney, who has had regular contact with the missionaries’ families in Idaho.

“The issue is not that these were kidnappers, but that they did not have the proper paperwork. Do you put someone in jail and threaten them with 15 years’ prison because they don’t have proper paperwork?”

**************

Meantime: where is Puello?


In DR, the best sources think, despite his statements to AP. But I personally think only his Mama knows for sure....

Meantime, one must ask: if our modern-day ability to track suspected criminals using high tech and GPS means has improved so much, can't the NSA monitors who constantly review computer and cell phone traffic tell law enforcement officials looking for Puello track the phone calls to reporters?

Earlier, he was answering his call phone. He must have realised that wasn't too smart. He called the AP earlier today to say, hey, I'm in Panama now - and, hey, I'm innocent.

Sheesh!