CAIRO — An appeals court in Qatar on Sunday threw out charges against a Los Angeles couple who had been accused in the death of their adopted daughter, but hours later their nearly two-year ordeal was extended when they were denied permission to leave the country.
A family representative with them, Eric Volz, posted on Twitter from the Qatar airport that Grace and Matthew Huang had been prevented from passing through immigration control. American diplomats were trying to help clear the couple’s departure. The U.S. ambassador, Dana Shell Smith, had gone to the airport to see them off.
The Huangs’ case, closely watched by rights groups and others, raised questions about the judiciary system in the wealthy Persian Gulf state and cast a spotlight on its conservative social mores. Advocates for the couple said their interracial adoption of an African child, Gloria, was cast by Qatari prosecutors as a possible case of human trafficking.
The Huangs were convicted on child-endangerment charges in the January 2013 death of their 8-year-old, the ruling that was overturned on Sunday. They couple initially spent months in jail but were allowed to remain under house arrest during part of the lengthy appeal process.
The couple had strongly maintained their innocence and presented medical evidence that Gloria, who came from a deeply impoverished background, suffered from an eating disorder that led to her death.
The Huangs have been separated from their two other African-born adopted children, who were returned to the United States to stay with relatives.
The case has been sensitive because of tiny Qatar’s strategic importance to the United States. It is the site of a major American air base, and it has played a role in strikes being carried out against the Sunni militants of the Islamic State, who have seized large parts of Iraq and Syria.
Controversy has arisen over harsh Qatari labor practices as it prepares to host the 2022 World Cup. The government has promised reforms meant to stem abuse of workers, many of them from South Asia.