Chadian security personnel ask journalists to leave after a Chadian military plane transporting European men and women accused of kidnapping 103 African children lands Friday at a combined French and Chadian military airport in N'Djamena, Chad. The case of Europeans held in the alleged kidnapping should be moved to N'Djamena from a remote city, the Supreme Court ruled Friday.

N’Djamena, Chad ? Seventeen Europeans held in the alleged kidnapping of 103 African children were flown to Chad’s capital Friday from a remote eastern city after the Supreme Court ruled their case should be moved to N’Djamena.

A French military official at a French-Chadian military airport in the capital confirmed a Chadian military transport plane journalists saw land was carrying the 17. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, and journalists were told to leave the airport before they could see any of the detainees.

Prosecutors had asked that the high-profile case be moved to the capital.

The 17 detained since last week by Chadian authorities included six French citizens charged with kidnapping.

A charity calling itself Zoe’s Ark was stopped last week from flying the children from eastern Chad to Europe, where the group said it intended to place them with host families. The group says its intentions were purely humanitarian and that it had conducted investigations over several weeks to determine the children it was taking were orphans.

The French Foreign Ministry and others have cast doubt on the claims by Zoe’s Ark that the children were orphans from Sudan’s 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.

Aid workers who interviewed the children Zoe’s Ark had tried to fly out said Thursday most of them had been living with adults whom they considered to be their parents, and came from villages on the Chadian-Sudanese border region.

The U.N.’s Children Fund, the U.N. refugee agency and the international Red Cross said their workers had examined the children and treated some for small injuries, but found none to have serious health conditions.

In addition to the six accused of kidnapping, Chadian authorities detained French journalists who had accompanied the Zoe’s Ark team and the crew of the plane they planned to use to take the children to France. The crew included Spaniards and a Belgian pilot.