Haiti Kidnapping Charges Against Missionaries Dropped

American Laura Silsby, head of Idaho-based charity called New Life Children's Refuge sits at a police station in Port-au-Prince on January 31. (Fred Dufour/Getty Images)

A Haiti judge dropped kidnapping charges against 10 Baptist missionaries on Thursday.

The missionaries tried to take 33 children out of Haiti to neighboring Dominican Republic after the country was crippled by a devastating earthquake in January.

The charges were dropped because the children were handed over freely by their parents judge Saint-Vil told the Associated Press.

However, the leader of the Baptist group, Laura Silsby, who remains in jail in Haiti, will be tried on charges of arranging illegal travel. According to the judge, Silsby deceived the other missionaries by telling them she had proper documentation to take the children out of the country, when in fact she did not.

The judge also said that Silsby was aware that they were not allowed to take the children out of the country, as she tried before in vain to arrange the necessary permission. If convicted, Silsby faces up to three years in prison.