US couple leaves Qatar after travel ban lifted

A US couple has left Qatar after being held in-limbo for three days following a local court decision clearing them of charges in the death of their adopted daughter.

Matthew and Grace Huang boarded a flight back to the US on Wednesday after a Qatari appeals judge overturned their conviction earlier in the week in the death of their eight-year-old daughter in 2013.

The couple had been sentenced to three years in prison for parental neglect.

“Wheels are up,” Eric Volz, a representative for the couple from US-based advocacy group David House Agency, posted on Twitter.

While the conviction was overturned on Sunday, Qatari officials did not immediately allow the couple to leave Doha, the capital, and confiscated their passports, prompting swift condemnation from US Secretary of State John Kerry.

“I called on the [Qatar] government to immediately implement the court’s decision and permit their return to the United States without further delay,” Kerry said in a statement.

On Wednesday, when the travel ban was lifted, the Huangs left Qatar on a flight bound for Los Angeles, where they are originally from and where their two other adopted children are living.

“They are innocent, they have been proven innocent, and they will finally be reunited with their children,” said Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project, a programme at the California Western School of Law that campaigns for the release of wrongfully convicted inmates.

The US State Department applauded the decision to allow the couple to leave Qatar, and reported that the Qatari attorney general would not launch any further appeals in the case.

The Huangs moved to Qatar in 2012 with their three adopted children. Their daughter, Gloria, originally from Ghana, died unexpectedly in January 2013, and the Qatari authorities arrested the couple on suspicion of foul play.

Local officials first accused the couple of starving their daughter to death for the purpose of harvesting her organs. The Huangs were later charged with parental negligence in her death.

Their departure from Doha concludes nearly two years of court proceedings.