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American Couple in Qatar Sentenced in Daughter’s Death Qatar Finds U.S. Couple Guilty in Daughter’s Death
(about 14 hours later)
DOHA, Qatar — Matthew and Grace Huang, an American couple accused in the death of their daughter by depriving her of sustenance for four days, were each sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison followed by deportation, in a case that has drawn close attention here and in the United States. DOHA, Qatar — Matthew and Grace Huang, an American couple accused of killing their 8-year-old adopted African daughter last year by depriving her of sustenance for four days, were unexpectedly found guilty on Thursday and were each sentenced to three years in prison followed by deportation, in a case that has drawn close attention in Qatar and in the United States.
They were allowed to leave the courtroom after the verdict and their lawyer said they would appeal the judgment, a process that would most likely begin in May. The State Department expressed disappointment at the verdict, which the defendants and their supporters described as a grievous error that would be appealed.
In a statement he read to reporters outside the courtroom, Mr. Huang, 37, said: “We have just been wrongfully convicted and we feel as if we are being kidnapped by the Qatar judicial system. This verdict is wrong and appears to be nothing more than an effort to save face.” The Huangs were allowed to leave the courtroom after the verdict and remained free on their own recognizance, as they have been for the past four months after nearly a year of incarceration in Qatar, where Mr. Huang had been working as a public works infrastructure engineer. Their legal representatives said that the appeal process would most likely begin in May and that they would seek permission to fly home even while the appeal is pending.
“This verdict should be overturned immediately and we should be allowed to go home,” he said. “We have just been wrongfully convicted, and we feel as if we are being kidnapped by the Qatar judicial system,” Mr. Huang, 37, said in a statement that he read to reporters outside the courtroom with his wife, 36, standing beside him. “This verdict is wrong and appears to be nothing more than an effort to save face.”
The Huangs have denied the charges and said that they were victims of a gross miscarriage of justice. They said their daughter, Gloria, whom they had adopted from Ghana, had an eating disorder formed during an impoverished childhood in Africa, which sometimes led her to fast, binge or steal food. Friends of the family said that Gloria, who was 8, and two sons the couple had also adopted from Africa had seemed healthy and happy. The Huangs, who are from Los Angeles, have said that they are victims of a gross miscarriage of justice caused in part by basic misunderstandings about multiracial families and adoptions, which are relatively alien concepts in this tiny Persian Gulf emirate and which they say created prejudicial impressions that their daughter, Gloria, had been abused.
The couple had already spent 11 months in detention before being released on their own recognizance in November. The sentence on Thursday was read out to a packed courtroom, where many verdicts were issued in a series of unrelated trials. The exact charge on which the two were convicted was not clear. They said the child, whom they had adopted from Ghana, had an eating disorder formed during an impoverished early childhood in Africa, which sometimes led her to fast, binge or steal food. Friends of the family said that Gloria and two sons the couple also adopted from Africa had seemed healthy and happy.
The precise cause of the child’s death remains uncertain. But the Huangs, their lawyers and supporters have said the case has revealed what they called deeply ingrained prejudices here about adoption and multiracial families, leading to the presumption that the girl must have been abused. Prosecutors raised questions about why defendants of Asian heritage would adopt African children and asserted that they had deliberately withheld food and let her die.
The family was living in Doha because Mr. Huang, 37, an engineer, had been working on the city’s water and sewage systems. The prosecution’s case was undercut, however, by testimony from friends, medical pathology experts in the United States and a defense team that punched holes in a flawed pathology report that helped formed the crux of the charges against them. Defense lawyers asserted last month that the report might have been fabricated and asked Qatar’s attorney general’s office to investigate possible prosecutorial misconduct.
The case began in January 2013, when the Huangs were arrested after rushing their unconscious daughter to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The couple’s two boys, now 8 and 12, were temporarily placed in an orphanage but a judge later gave Mrs. Huang’s mother, who lives in Washington State, custody. “I think this verdict really confirms that saving face is more powerful than science and evidence,” said Eric Volz, the managing director of the David House Agency, a Los Angeles-based crisis management group that helps Americans entangled in legal crises abroad and has been assisting the Huangs in their defense.
The couple’s trial was regarded by some as a test of the country’s commitment to judicial process. It has also been followed closely by the American Embassy because the United States considers Qatar an important ally. America’s biggest military base in the Middle East is in Qatar, and dozens of American corporations and organizations operate here. Mr. Volz said the Huangs had bought airline tickets on the expectation of an acquittal. In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman, Marie Harf, told reporters, “We were surprised and disappointed by the court’s decision.”
Prosecutors initially based part of their case on the suggestion that the Huangs may have been child traffickers, questioning in court how people of Asian descent could possibly want African children. She also reiterated the American government’s concerns, which had been expressed to Qatari officials, that “not all of the evidence was weighed by the court, and that some cultural misunderstandings may have led to an unfair trial.”
The sentence was read out to a packed courtroom after other verdicts were issued in a series of 10 unrelated trials. The precise charge on which the Huangs were convicted was never made clear.
The case began in January 2013, when the Huangs were arrested after rushing their unconscious daughter to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The couple’s two boys, now 8 and 12, were temporarily placed in an orphanage, but a judge later gave custody to Mrs. Huang’s mother, who lives in Washington State.
In his statement, Mr. Huang said: “The prosecutor accused us of trafficking our legally adopted children with the intent of selling their organs. That is how ridiculous this is.”In his statement, Mr. Huang said: “The prosecutor accused us of trafficking our legally adopted children with the intent of selling their organs. That is how ridiculous this is.”
He continued: “We are calling on the United States President Obama to call the head of state in Qatar and explain to him why American families adopt high-needs children.” In the courtroom, the Huangs, who are Christians, sat with relatives, friends from a Bible study group and two representatives from the American Embassy.
In the courtroom, the Huangs sat with family members, friends from a Bible study group and two representatives from the American Embassy. The Huangs’ Qatar-based lawyer, Sami Abu Shaikha, said he was not completely disappointed by the sentence, asserting that “what it really means is that we have managed to convince the court that the death of Gloria was not an intentional, premeditated murder, which is the narrative presented by the prosecutor.”
Eric Volz, the managing director of the David House Agency, a Los Angeles-based group that advises Americans entangled in legal problems abroad and has been helping the Huangs, told reporters that there was “zero evidence” in the case. The couple had already bought airline tickets in the expectation of being acquitted, he said, and had planned to fly to the United States to see their sons. The couple will remain free during the appeal, the lawyer said, and if their conviction is upheld, the 11 months they spent in detention last year will be taken off the sentence. Under Qatari judicial rules, a one-year sentence translates to nine months of actual jail time, meaning that the Huangs will serve a further 16 months in prison if they lose their appeal.
Mr. Volz said the judge on Thursday had declared defendants in other cases guilty or not guilty. But in the Huangs’ case, he merely read out the sentence.
“We see that as a grave violation of due process. How can he punish them without convicting them? The judge didn’t even say what he was declaring them guilty of at all,” Mr. Volz said.
But the Huangs’ lawyer, Sami Abu Shaikha, said the charges would not routinely be read out in court.
“In essence, I am satisfied with the verdict because what it really means is that we have managed to convince the court that the death of Gloria was not an intentional, premeditated murder, which is the narrative presented by the prosecutor,” Mr. Abu Shaikha said.
“Of course, I would have been more satisfied had the Huangs been found entirely innocent,” he said. “This is why we will file an appeal. But I praise the Qatari court for their understanding and ruling.”
The couple will remain free during the appeal, the lawyer said, and if their conviction is upheld, the 11 months they spent in detention last year will be taken off the sentence. Under Qatari judicial rules, a one-year sentence translates to nine months of actual jail time, meaning that the Huangs would serve a further 16 months in prison if they lost their appeal.