Eight of the 10 American missionaries held in quake-hit Haiti on child kidnapping charges were freed by a judge Wednesday and whisked to the airport for an expected flight home.
The US nationals were placed in a van with diplomatic plates and driven out of the compound where they had been held since their arrest on January 29.
A US Air Force official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the group was due to leave Port-au-Prince aboard a US military transport plane in the evening to travel to Miami.
The emotionally charged case has dragged on for 19 days, drawing the attention of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and overshadowing the critical relief effort after a devastating earthquake on January 12 left more than 217,000 people dead and over a million homeless.
Haitian Secretary of State for Public Security Claudy Gassant delivered the release order to the Americans while they still stood behind bars, officials said.
Judge Bernard Saint-vil, who is handling the case, allowed them to leave the country without bail, according to their lawyer Aviol Fleurant.
But Saint-vil wants to question two other missionaries -- group leader Laura Silsby and her confidante Charisa Coulter -- "because they were in Haiti before the earthquake," Fleurant added.
He earlier told AFP that Coulter had become sick in jail and was being treated for an unspecified illness.
With permission granted to leave the country, the eight are likely confident that their ordeal behind bars is over.
But another lawyer for the Americans, Louis Gary Lissade, a former Haitian justice minister, said the charges against the eight had not yet been dropped, although he expressed confidence that would happen soon.
Gassant stressed that the release does not prove his clients' guilt or innocence, and that the eight should be prepared to return to Haiti should authorities here seek to carry out a prosecution.
"The release such as the one today is not a definitive decision. They should remain available for presentation before the judge," he said.
Fleurant said Silsby has an orphanage in the neighboring Dominican Republic, the Spanish-speaking country that shares the isle of Hispaniola with Haiti.
The US nationals, Baptist missionaries belonging to the New Life Children's Refuge, were caught trying to take a busload of 33 supposed orphans across the border to the Dominican Republic without authorization.
After it emerged that some of the children had parents, the Americans' lawyers have sought to portray the Baptists as acting selflessly to help during Haiti's catastrophe. They say the group had no criminal intent.
Some parents told the judge they willingly gave the children up because they could no longer care for them following the devastating quake that destroyed much of the Haitian capital.
Fleurant earlier expressed concern that judge Saint-vil may want to question his clients to determine their relationship with their former legal adviser, Jorge Puello.
Police in El Salvador are investigating Puello for his alleged involved in a sex trafficking ring, although he has denied the allegations.
"I don't think this has any incidence on the Americans' case," said Fleurant. "I can only tell you that (Puello) met the Americans after their arrest in Haiti."
Puello says he had no contact with the Americans prior to their arrest, but declined to provide details of how his legal relationship with the group began.
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