Attorney: Haiti judge has not issued decision on whether jailed missionaries should be tried

Lawyer: No ruling issued on jailed missionaries

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A lawyer representing one of the 10 U.S. missionaries jailed in Haiti for trying to take a busload of children out of the country says the judge has not yet issued a decision on whether they should go to trial.

Attorney Gary Lassade tells The Associated Press he expects Judge Bernard Saint-Vil to issue his recommendation to the prosecutor Thursday.

The prosecutor has the right to appeal if the judge recommends that charges be dropped, but the judge has the final say.

The Americans, most from an Idaho Baptist group, were charged last week with child kidnapping and criminal association. They were arrested Jan. 29 trying to take 33 children across the border to an orphanage they were establishing in the Dominican Republic.