HAITI

U.S. Missionary Free to Go

Silsby sentenced and released for time served.

Laura Silsby, the U.S. missionary convicted of trying to illegally take Haitian children out of the country, is coming home. Silsby is free to leave Haiti after the judge sentenced her to the time she had already spent behind bars on remand. Silsby was caught among nine other Americans trying to sneak 33 children out of the earthquake-torn country and into the Dominican Republic. The group claimed they were trying to help destitute orphans, although it was later found the children were not orphans at all. Prosecution was downgraded from “abducting children” to “irregular travel,” which led to the three months and eight days jail sentence coinciding with the time she spent in custody waiting for her trial. While waiting for her flight out of Port-au-Prince, Silsby told an Associated Press reporter, “I’m praising God.”