Silsby Attorney: "Consul General Told [Her] Not to Leave the Country"
[URL=http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_487859.ht… Baptists’ lawyer in Haiti quits [/URL]
Edwin Coq, a Haitian lawyer who had been seeking to free the Americans arrested near the border with a busload of children in the wake of Haiti’s devastating quake, said there had been a ‘misunderstanding.’ ‘The parents of these Americans have ended their association with me over the payment of my fees,’ he told AFP.
‘Not only have they given me nothing up to now, they have also sought to ruin my reputation by saying that I asked them for money to corrupt the judge.’ Coq said ‘we had agreed that I would be paid US$60,000 dollars (S$85,234) and part of it would be sent to me as a deposit on the account.’
He strongly denied the bribery accusation and said he had sent an email to the parents of the Americans on Saturday saying he was quitting the case.
[URL=http://www.idahostatesman.com/earthquake/story/1071326.html At Sunday service, Meridian church members are asked to pray for Haiti detainees[/URL]
One of the detainees passed a handwritten note Saturday through the bars of a Port-au-Prince jail cell to an NBC producer pleading for help and suggesting that eight of the detainees no longer trusted Laura Silsby, the Central Valley member who organized the Haiti mission.More: http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/1071113.html
“We fear for our lives,” the note said. “There is corruption and extortion. Laura wants to control. We believe lying. We’re afraid.”
Eight of the 10 Americans detained in Haiti are turning on their one-time leader, according to a report Saturday from NBC Nightly News.
A member of the group from Meridian’s Central Valley Baptist Church handed an NBC producer a note during a Saturday interview while group leader Laura Silsby was speaking. All members of the group signed the note, except for Silsby and her live-in Nanny, 24-year-old Charisa Coulter, NBC reported.
“We fear for our lives in Haiti. There is corruption and extortion,” the note read. “Laura wants to control. We believe lying. We’re afraid.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35277307/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/
The Haitian lawyer for 10 U.S. Baptists charged with child kidnapping tried to bribe the missionaries’ way out of jail and has been fired, the attorney who hired him said Saturday night.
The Haitian lawyer, Edwin Coq, denied the allegation. He said the $60,000 he requested from the Americans’ families was his fee.
Jorge Puello, the attorney in the neighboring Dominican Republic retained by relatives of the 10 American missionaries after their arrest last week, told The Associated Press that he fired Coq on Friday night. He had hired Coq to represent the detainees at Haitian legal proceedings.
I really feel for the people who were on the team and had no idea that the paperwork wasn’t in order. What a nightmare for them.
Any American who took the time to understand the situation in Haiti would know that of the hundreds of thousands of orphans that are purported to be there, that most have family (at least a single parent) who should be taking care of them. Even the legit orphanages in the country are full of kids with at least a single parent. While Americans want to do good, what does it do to the soul of a nation for parents to give up their children? What does it do to the heart of a child to know they were given up by their mother and/or father? My personal opinion is that outsiders are doing Haiti no good by supporting the habit of some parents giving up their children. Find other ways of helping these families.
On another note, it is laughable that a Haitian lawyer has racked up $60,000 in fees in such a short time.
On another note, it is laughable that a Haitian lawyer has racked up $60,000 in fees in such a short time.
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