Four American health care workers were released on bail today in Zimbabwe after being jailed for three days for allegedly distributing AIDS medicine without a license.
They face trial on Sept. 27. A magistrate ordered them to surrender their passports and post $200 bail, The Associated Press reported. They could be fined and deported.
Two others volunteers, from Zimbabwe and New Zealand, were also arrested. Among them are nurses, doctors and a community worker, all associated with the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif., Britain's the Guardian reported, citing the U.S. embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital.
"They operated from two clinics, one in Mutoko and one in Harare, where they worked primarily with AIDS orphans and HIV-positive patients for the past decade," the embassy said.
As they left a courthouse today, American citizens Gloria Cox Crowell, 48, Dr. Anthony Eugene Jones, 39, Gregory Renard Miller, 64, and David Greenburg, 62, were surrounded by children and members of their congregation, the AP reported. During the hearing, AIDS patients and orphans wept.
Defense attorney Jonathan Samukange described the alleged offenses as minor. In the past week, he said, the medical team had treated more than 3,000 patients.
"They were arrested in the scope of their duty. I am very embarrassed by the actions of our government in arresting people who are doing charity work. They are Christians ... not criminals," the AP quoted him as saying.
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