N'DJAMENA, Chad - A Belgian pilot and three Spanish flight crew were set free Friday by authorities in Chad who had accused them of complicity in a plot to kidnap 103 children and take them to France for adoption.
One of the Spaniards, Daniel Gonzalez, smiled and flashed a thumbs-up signal as he left the courthouse in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena. The Spaniards left Chad on a Spanish government jet, witnesses said. The Belgian pilot was expected to leave on a military aircraft provided by his government.
"I want to take the opportunity to express from here our sincerest gratitude to the government of Chad and the judicial authorities for this decision," Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said.
Chad arrested 17 Europeans last month after it stopped the French charity Zoe's Ark from flying the children to Europe. The group said it had found host families for the children, who it said were from Sudan's western Darfur region, where fighting since 2003 has forced thousands to flee to Chad and led directly or indirectly to the deaths of more than 200,000 people.
France's Foreign Ministry and others cast doubt on the group's claims; aid workers who interviewed the children said a majority reported living with at least one adult they considered a parent.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy intervened in the case last week and Chadian authorities released three French journalists and three female Spanish flight crew on Sunday. Sarkozy flew them home.
In Paris on Friday, investigating judges searched the office of the Capa media agency. Capa reporter Marc Garmirian was among the journalists detained in the case and released Sunday. He filmed the group for weeks leading up to their arrest. The judges are looking into possible charges of illegal adoption and fraud against the aid group.
Chadian defense lawyer Jean-Bernard Padare did not say why the judge had released Spaniards, Gonzalez, Agustin Rey and Sergio Munoz, and the Belgian, identified by Spanish media as Jacques Wilmart.
Zoe's Ark had hired the Spaniards to fly the children to France, and the Belgian to fly a plane carrying some of the children around Chad.
Six French Zoe's Ark workers charged with attempted kidnapping remain in custody in Chad, where conviction could mean 20 years in prison with hard labor.
Zoe's Ark maintains its intentions were purely humanitarian and that it had conducted investigations over several weeks to determine the children it was taking were orphans.
The episode comes at a sensitive time in Chad's relations with Europe. The European Union is planning to deploy a peacekeeping force in Chad and Central African Republic composed largely of French soldiers. The 3,000-strong force is to help refugees along the two nations' borders with Darfur.
In July, Sarkozy's then-wife, Cecilia, helped broker the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor held for more than eight years in Libya, where they were accused of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus.
