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A Haitian judge has ordered the immediate release of eight of the 10 Americans held in the quake-battered nation on child kidnapping charges.
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.
Haiti Secretary of State for Public Security Claudy Gassant delivered the order to the Americans at jail, officials said.
"Eight of my clients will be set free. The judge wants to question two of my clients because they were in Haiti before the earthquake," said lawyer Aviol Fleurant.
Asked whether Judge Bernard Saint-Vil, who is handling the case, had already issued the release order, Fleurant said "yes," and that they were allowed to leave Haiti the same day with no bail to pay.
Another lawyer for the Americans, Louis Gary Lissade, said that the charges against the eight to be released had not yet been dropped.
However the attorney, a former Haitian justice minister, said he believed the charges would be dropped soon.
The two who will remain in detention are group leader Laura Silsby and her confidant Charisa Coulter, said Fleurant, who earlier told AFP that Coulter had become sick in jail and was being treated for an unspecified illness.
Fleurant said Silsby and Coulter were in the country before the earthquake to help an orphanage in northeastern Haiti.
He also said that 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 on January 29 trying to take a busload of 33 supposed orphans across the border to the Dominican Republic without authorization.
After it emerged 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 them up because they were unable to care for them following the devastating quake that destroyed much of the Haitian capital and killed more than 217,000 people.
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 started.
