Haiti has charged 10 US missionaries¹ with child abduction and criminal conspiracy² for allegedly trying to smuggle³ 33 children out of the country.

10名美国传教士试图带领33名海地儿童偷渡出国，因此被海地法院以诱拐儿童和阴谋犯罪的罪名起诉。

The missionaries have said they were not trying to kidnap the children

Haitian officials said their cases would now be sent to an investigating judge who would decide how to proceed.

If convicted they face lengthy漫长的，冗长的 jail terms, says the BBC's Paul Adams, in Haiti's quake-hit capital city.

When stopped on the border last Friday, they said they were taking the children to a Dominican Republic orphanage⁵孤儿院.

But it has emerged some of the youngsters had parents who were alive.

'Kidnappers⁶'

After the hearing the 10 missionaries were taken back to the jail where they have been kept since Friday.

Amid chaotic⁷ scenes, the group was bundled into乱塞进 a van outside the court.

"I feel good," the group's leader Laura Silsby told reporters. "I trust in God."

The five men and five women, most of them from Idaho, were due to have a hearing earlier in the week, but that was postponed⁸ because of a lack of interpreters.

Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has labelled the Americans "kidnappers".

Justice Minister Paul Denis said they should be tried in Haiti despite the damage done to the country's judicial⁹ infrastructure¹⁰ and casualties人员伤亡 among judges and court staff.

There have been suggestions the 10 could be tried in the US.

"It is Haitian law that has been violated, it is up to the Haitian authorities to hear and judge the case," he told AFP法新社 news agency.

"I don't see any reason why they should be tried in the United States."

The US ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, met with the group at police headquarters after the hearing.

"We'd like to assure they get treated according to the law, the Haitian law, and that they get treated fairly," he said.

A state department spokesman in Washington said the US was watching the case closely and would continue to offer assistance, through its consulate领事馆, to the group.