Ten Americans arrested in Haiti last week charged Thursday with abduction…“We’re just trusting God for a positive outcome.”

Ten Americans arrested in Haiti last week as they tried to take 33 Haitian children across the border were charged Thursday with abduction and criminal association, according to prosecutors.

The charges, which carry prison terms of up to 15 years, were announced after a closed-door court hearing in which prosecutors questioned the Americans, most of them members of a Baptist congregation from Idaho. The case has become a flash point for Haiti’s fears of foreign encroachment in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The Americans, their heads obscured by black coverings were led from the capital city’s white central courthouse and back to jail following the hearing. Their faces mostly impassive, they did not speak to the crush of reporters or photographers massed outside the building to cover the case.

Before the hearing, Laura Silsby, a member of the group, sounded a hopeful note as she waited to be taken into court, saying, “We’re just trusting God for a positive outcome.”

Read more www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/world/americas/05orphans.html