Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday called on the Middle Eastern country of Qatar to allow Matthew and Grace Huang to return to the U.S., saying the country no longer had any reason to hold them after a court cleared them of any wrongdoing in the death of their daughter.
The couple was detained and their passports confiscated at the airport in the capital city of Doha on Sunday as they attempted to return home following the court’s decision. A new warrant had reportedly been issued for their arrest. It is not clear what charges they face.
“We are deeply concerned about new delays that have prevented their departure. I spoke with Qatari Foreign Minister Attiya today and called on the government to immediately implement the court’s decision and permit their return to the United States without further delay,” Kerry said in a statement. Qatar and the U.S. are allies.
The Huangs were arrested and charged by Qatari police in 2013 after their 8-year-old daughter died. Matthew Huang works for an international development corporation, and the family had been living in Qatar while Matthew worked on a contract there.
The Qatari police alleged that the parents had allowed the child, who was adopted from Ghana, to starve to death. The Huangs said the child had suffered from malnutrion-related problems from before they became her parents.
They were convicted last year, and spent nearly a year in prison but an appeals court overturned the convictions Sunday. Eric Volz, a spokesman for the family, said the second arrest was a “spiteful move” by the authorities.
Kerry said the court’s “thoroughly documented findings” established the couple’s innocence. “The 22 long months of court proceedings following their daughter’s tragic death have compounded the tragedy for the Huang family, and it is time now, as the Appeals Court stated, to let the Huangs return home,” he said.
In a statement earlier on Sunday, Matthew Huang thanked the judge for the decision and said he and his wife were eager to return home. “Grace and I want to go home and be reunited with our sons. We have not been able to grieve our daughter’s death.”
