10 found taking Haitian children could face US courts

If they were acting in good faith - as the Americans say - “perhaps the courts will try to be more lenient with them,’’ he said.

US Embassy officials would not say whether Washington would accept hosting judicial proceedings for the Americans, who are mostly from Idaho. For now, the case remains firmly in Haitian hands, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington.

“Once we know all the facts, we will determine what the appropriate course is, but the judgment is really up to the Haitian government,’’ he said.

Haitian officials insist some prosecution is needed to help deter child trafficking, which many fear will flourish in the chaos caused by the devastating Jan. 12 quake. The government and aid groups are still struggling to get food, water, shelter and basic health care to hundreds of thousands of survivors, and many parents are desperate to get help for their children.

US diplomats have had unlimited access to the 10 detainees, and will monitor any court proceedings, he said. They have not been charged.

Members of the church group insisted they were only trying to save abandoned children - but few appear to have had any significant experience with Haiti, international charity work, or international adoption regulations.

Since their arrest Friday near the border, church group members have been held inside two small concrete rooms in the same judicial police headquarters building where ministers have makeshift offices and give disaster response briefings.

“There is no air conditioning, no electricity. It is very disturbing,’’ lawyer Jorge Puello told the AP by phone from the Dominican Republic, where the Baptists hoped to shelter the children in a rented beach hotel.

One of the Americans, Charisa Coulter of Boise, Idaho, was treated yesterday at a field hospital for dehydration or the flu. Looking pale as she lay on an Army cot, Coulter, 24, was being guarded by two Haitian police officers.