DOHA // An American couple cleared by a Qatari appeals court of wrongdoing in the death of their adopted daughter have been barred from leaving the country.
Eric Volz, who is coordinating legal and publicity efforts for the family in Doha, said Qatari immigration officials had blocked Matthew and Grace Huang from leaving yesterday and confiscated their passports just hours after an appeals court overturned a child endangerment verdict against them.
Mr and Mrs Huang were arrested in January 2013 after the death of their eight-year-old daughter Gloria, who had been adopted from an orphanage in Ghana.
The couple were initially accused of starving to death their child to sell her organs but were later jailed for three years for parental neglect.
On Sunday the appeals court ruled the couple was not guilty and said they were free to leave Qatar, based on witnesses’ accounts that Gloria was “not neglected in leading a normal life”.
“Grace and I want to go home and be reunited with our sons,” said Mr Huang, describing the judicial process as “long and emotional”.
“We have been unable to grieve our daughter’s death but we want to thank the judge for today’s decision,” he said outside the court.
“We’re looking forward to returning to the US.”
The witnesses gave evidence saying they had seen Gloria eating one day before her death, the presiding judge said.
“This negates the charge that she was prevented from eating, a charge that the court of first instance used as a base for its initial ruling,” the judge said.
A forensic pathologist told the court last month that the autopsy showed signs that Gloria had not eaten for days.
“I found no signs of food in her stomach and the whole intestine, and I found no other reasons for death,” said Anees Mahmud.
But the Huangs have insisted that Gloria died of an eating disorder rooted in a troubled early childhood.
The couple were released in November last year pending trial, but the court denied their request to leave Qatar to join their other two adopted children in the United States.
Both adoption and multiracial families are rare in Qatar, and the family’s supporters maintain Qatari authorities misunderstood the Huangs’ situation.
The public prosecutor had pushed for the death penalty for the Huangs, who were initially accused of starving Gloria to sell her body parts.
Supporters of the Huangs had launched a campaign on social media to call for their freedom.
The “Free Matt and Grace” website says their daughter died “suddenly” on January 15.
It also says she had suffered from eating disorders which “likely were triggered by the extreme poverty she endured at an early age”.
In addition to imprisonment, the lower court had ordered the couple to pay a fine of 15,000 Qatari riyals (Dh15,000) each and to be deported after serving their sentence.
US officials intervened on the couple’s behalf, with state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki last month urging Qatar to lift their travel ban immediately and bring the case to “an expeditious and just conclusion”.
Qatar hosts an important American military air operations centre at an air base outside Doha.
Mr Huang last month criticised the court as a “sham” and said the couple felt “kidnapped and trapped”.
The Huangs moved to Qatar in 2012 when Mr Huang got a job as an engineer, to work on infrastructure projects linked to the 2022 football World Cup.
Their supporters described them as a loving family and said they collected supporting testimony from people who knew them in Qatar, which authorities declined to accept.
* Agence France-Presse, with additional reporting from Associated Press
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Series info
Test series schedule 1st Test, Abu Dhabi: Sri Lanka won by 21 runs; 2nd Test, Dubai: Play starts at 2pm, Friday-Tuesday
ODI series schedule 1st ODI, Dubai: October 13; 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi: October 16; 3rd ODI, Abu Dhabi: October 18; 4th ODI, Sharjah: October 20; 5th ODI, Sharjah: October 23
T20 series schedule 1st T20, Abu Dhabi: October 26; 2nd T20, Abu Dhabi: October 27; 3rd T20, Lahore: October 29
Tickets Available at www.q-tickets.com
Stat Fourteen Fourteen of the past 15 Test matches in the UAE have been decided on the final day. Both of the previous two Tests at Dubai International Stadium have been settled in the last session. Pakistan won with less than an hour to go against West Indies last year. Against England in 2015, there were just three balls left.
Key battle - Azhar Ali v Rangana Herath Herath may not quite be as flash as Muttiah Muralitharan, his former spin-twin who ended his career by taking his 800th wicket with his final delivery in Tests. He still has a decent sense of an ending, though. He won the Abu Dhabi match for his side with 11 wickets, the last of which was his 400th in Tests. It was not the first time he has owned Pakistan, either. A quarter of all his Test victims have been Pakistani. If Pakistan are going to avoid a first ever series defeat in the UAE, Azhar, their senior batsman, needs to stand up and show the way to blunt Herath.
MEYDAN CARD
6.30pm Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm Conditions Dh240,000 (D) 1,600m
7.40pm Handicap Dh190,000 (D) 2,000m
8.15pm Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 2,200m
8.50pm The Entisar Listed Dh265,000 (D) 2,000m
9.25pm The Garhoud Sprint Listed Dh265,000 (D) 1,200m
10pm Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,400m
The National selections
6.30pm Majestic Thunder
7.05pm Commanding
7.40pm Mark Of Approval
8.15pm Mulfit
8.50pm Gronkowski
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10pm Midnight Sands
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
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