By Gina Gomez
Port-au-Prince, Feb 9, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The future of the ten U.S. missionaries, who have been charged for kidnapping 33 Haitian children, still remains uncertain. At a hearing that was held on Monday, no verdict was given out by a Haitian judge about whether the missionaries, who hail from two Idaho based churches, should be freed or held for further legal proceedings.

The ten American missionaries comprising of five women and five men were taken into custody last month after they allegedly attempted to smuggle 33 native Haitian children out of the disaster hit nation. A judicial source has revealed that any proceedings in the case was unlikely to take place before Wednesday after charges such as child trafficking and other criminal offense were levied against them last week. The team of missionaries have refuted the charges and have emphasized that they were not involved in any kind of unlawful activities. The group has reiterated that their only intention was to help the large number of children, who have been rendered homeless owing to the devastating natural calamity.

Following the hearing on Monday, Laura Silsby, the leader of the group expressed her faith in God and added that her team was waiting for the legal process in the earthquake hit island to come to an end. Although Laura Silsby had claimed earlier that all the 33 children who were being transported were orphans, investigation later revealed that many of them still have living parents. Sources claim that the parents of some of the children would also be testifying against the missionaries in the hearings that are scheduled to take place later.