An American couple held in Qatar following the acquittal of charges against them for the death of their adopted daughter, are due to return home to the US today.
Matthew and Grace Huang, originally from Los Angeles, were held at Hamad International Airport in Doha on Sunday evening as they attempted to leave after winning their appeal case.
US Ambassador to Qatar Dana Smith was at the airport on Sunday and has subsequently intervened to secure their return, CNN reports.
Secretary of State John Kerry also petitioned for their return, saying in a statement earlier this week: "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."
The travel ban was lifted yesterday, although it has not yet been confirmed that the couple have arrived in the US.
The Huang's adopted daughter, Gloria, was eight years old when she died in January 2013. The medical report said that she died from an irreversible loss of body mass and dehydration.
The parents were arrested the day after her death and subsequently charged with murder. At their trial, the prosecution alleged that her parents had starved her and kept her in a locked room.
The case has been riddled with confusion. The Huangs were eventually convicted in March 2014 of exposing Gloria to danger, but not deliberately starving her. They were sentenced to three years in prison.
The ruling was overturned on Sunday at an appeal court, where it was found that the lower courts had made numerous mistakes.
But when the couple tried to leave the country on Sunday evening, they were told that a new arrest warrant had been issued and their passports were taken from them, the family's representative, Eric Volz, told Reuters.
"This is sort of a spiteful move," Volz said.
The Huangs, originally from Los Angeles, moved to Qatar in 2012 for Matthew's work as an engineer.
The parents' supporters say that the accusation stemmed from cultural differences and discrimination against their inter-racial family. Gloria and her two brothers were adopted from Africa.
The family maintain that she had had struggled with malnutrition since they adopted her from Ghana aged four.
On a website campaigning for the Huangs' release, Gloria's erratic eating patterns are described: "From time to time she [Gloria] would exhibit an eating disorder – common among children with backgrounds similar to hers – where she would refuse food for days at a time and then eat more than an adult. Other times she would eat food from the garbage even when she had healthy food available. Yet most of the time she was vibrant and seemingly healthy. She then died suddenly in the midst of one of her cycles of refusing to eat."
The Huangs' two sons were originally placed in an orphanage, but have since returned to the US.
