From the beginning, the trial was plagued by unexplained and unnecessary delays, during which Matthew and Grace remained confined in a Qatari jail under deplorable conditions. At trial, the Huangs submitted voluminous evidence that refuted the police’s allegations and established the Huangs’ innocence. That evidence included 1) proof that the Huangs adopted their children through an international adoption agency and in conformance with international law, 2) witness statements attesting to the Huangs’ love and devotion to their children, 3) descriptions of the Huangs’ ongoing efforts to provide Gloria with healthy meals and address Gloria’s eating issues stemming from challenges she faced growing up in a Ghana orphanage, 4) evidence showing Gloria appeared healthy, active and normal in the immediate days before her death, and 5) sworn testimony from one of the world’s foremost pediatric forensic pathologists explaining that it was medically impossible for Gloria to have starved to death. 
 
 The prosecution, in contrast, presented no reliable evidence whatsoever that the Huangs harmed Gloria, let alone murdered her as part of an effort to harvest her organs or perform medical experiments on her. Instead, the case against the Huangs, which was rooted in transparently racial and cultural prejudice by the Qatari police and prosecutor, was perpetuated at trial by fabricated evidence and unreliable testimony about what “anonymous sources” supposedly told police. 
 
 In an attempt to counteract the Huangs’s expert reports, which established that Gloria could not have died of starvation and criticized the Qatari autopsy for not doing proper laboratory analyses of fluids, blood and tissue, the Qatari prosecutor filed with the court a highly suspicious laboratory report dated January 23, 2013. Despite no mention of lab work in the autopsy, the report purported to reflect that analysis was done on tissue taken from Gloria’s heart, brain, liver, kidneys, and lungs at autopsy. The prosecutor urged that the report somehow proved that Gloria had no diseases or other conditions that may have contributed to her death. The late-disclosed report did not support any such conclusion. However, more importantly, the report appears to have been an obvious fabrication. What the prosecutor did not know was that the Huangs had requested a second autopsy, which was conducted by an American pathologist after Gloria’s body was returned to the United States. The second autopsy report expressly noted that tissue samples had not been taken from Gloria’s brain or major organs during the first autopsy. There is no way that the late-disclosed report could be accurate based on the observation of Gloria’s intact organs during the second autopsy. Thus the authenticity of the late-disclosed laboratory report is highly suspect, and the Huangs submitted a formal request to the Qatari Solicitor General to launch an investigation into the suspicious report. To this day, there has been absolutely no response to this request. 
 
 In November 2013, at the conclusion of the trial, Matthew and Grace were finally released own their recognizance but were placed on a travel ban and barred from leaving Qatar. Although the Huangs and their counsel took their release as a positive sign that they would soon be acquitted, the proceedings continued to be delayed and it was not until March 27, 2014 that the Qatari Court finally reached a decision. In a written Judgment, the trial judge correctly rejected all of the prosecution’s claims, finding that prosecution witnesses were not reliable and that their testimony amounted to speculation. He specifically found that Gloria “was not denied food,” that there was “no evidence that the defendants have deliberately starved [Gloria] to death,” and that the medical evidence “did not confirm that the victim was starved to death, contrary to what the above investigators said.” (Judgment at 7-8). 
 
 These findings should have resulted in the Huangs being declared innocent and free to return home to their two remaining children. Shockingly, that is not what happened. Instead, the judge took it upon himself to interject a completely new charge against the Huangs and then, while acknowledging that the Huangs had no notice of the new charge (let alone any opportunity to defend against it), the Court proceeded to find them guilty and sentence them to a three years in a Qatari prison. 
 
 According to the judge, while the Huangs were not guilty of murder, they had “exposed” Gloria to danger in violation of Penal Code Article 269, the theory being that they committed a criminal act when they did not take Gloria to the hospital after she had refused to eat for a few days (something that the evidence at trial showed was common for children like Gloria that suffered severe pre-adoption malnourishment and had never resulted in any danger to Gloria). 
 
 In response to the verdict, the Huangs immediately declared their innocence, and called upon the United States government to intercede. That appears unlikely at this time. The United States and Qatari governments are strong allies in the Middle East. The Al Udeid military base (the headquarters of US CENTCOM) is located in Qatar and the increasing importance of Qatar as a regional factor and financial investor have cemented the US-Qatar relationship in recent years. Just last month, Qatar acted as an intermediary in brokering the deal that freed United States Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban prisoners. More recently, on July 11, 2014, at a public signing ceremony with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Qatar’s Defense Minister, the United States and Qatar entered into an $11 billion arms deal. 
 
 With no obvious diplomatic efforts forthcoming, the Huangs appeared for a hearing before the appeal court in Qatar and formally lodged an appeal of the unjust verdict on April 2, 2014, asserting their innocence on the previously uncharged child endangerment count and requesting that the three year prison sentence be overturned. Thereafter, the prosecution lodged its own appeal, also urging the appeal court to overturn the verdict and sentence, and instead find that the Huangs are guilty of murder. A hearing was later conducted, during which the two appeals were merged. Since then, the delays and lack of due process experienced during the trial have continued at the appellate level. ||||| Courtesy of California Innocence Project 
 
 LOS ANGELES — A married couple from Los Angeles have been jailed in the Middle East on a charge of murder with intent and are being accused of starving their 8-year-old daughter to death, according to a coalition of groups that are working on the case from the U.S. and trying to draw publicity to what they say are unjust arrests. 
 
 Matthew and Grace Huang were arrested in Doha, Qatar, shortly after their daughter, Gloria, died Jan. 15, said Alex Simpson, associate director of the nonprofit California Innocence Project. The Huangs adopted the child from Ghana at age 4. 
 
 The couple's two other children, also adopted from Africa, have been banned from leaving the country and are being cared for by their grandmother, who is living with them there. 
 
 The Qatar Embassy did not return a call or email seeking comment Monday. 
 
 The Huangs moved to Qatar in 2012 so Matthew Huang could work as an engineer on two major infrastructure projects associated with improvements for the 2022 World Cup, according to a narrative of the case posted on the family's website, . http://www.freemattandgrace.com 
 
 Their daughter, who was severely malnourished in early childhood, would periodically refuse food for several days and then binge eat or get food from bizarre sources, such as garbage cans or from strangers – a behavior her parents traced to her impoverished upbringing and were trying to address. She would also try to leave the house at night in search of food and pick through the medicine cabinet on late-night binges, according to a report prepared in the U.S. by Janice Ophoven, a pediatric forensic psychologist who reviewed the case for the family. 
 
 The behavior is not uncommon in adopted children who have suffered from severe malnutrition in their past, the report says. 
 
 Gloria, who was slight for her age, also had been treated for an intestinal parasite, and recent blood tests had showed severely low levels of a certain type of white blood cell that could have been a sign of an underlying bone marrow condition, as well as a vitamin D deficiency. 
 
 When Gloria died, she was in an anorexic episode and had not eaten in as many as four days, Ophoven wrote in her report. 
 
 A Qatari doctor who conducted Gloria's autopsy found that the child's hips, ribs and spine protruded and concluded the cause of death was dehydration and wasting disease. 
 
 Supporters in the U.S. say those diagnoses aren't possible and don't take into account the child's long history of eating disorders and malnourishment that caused lifelong health concerns, as well as recent blood work. 
 
 In addition, the unconventional family – an American couple of Asian descent with three black children – may have also complicated the situation because Qatar officials were unfamiliar with U.S. international adoptions, said Simpson, whose organization is one of several assisting the family. 
 
 An investigative report by Qatari police raised questions about why the Huangs would adopt children who did not share their "hereditary traits" and raised concerns that the children were part of a human trafficking operation or were "bought" for organ harvesting, according to the family's website. 
 
 "That's a fairly uncommon thing in any culture and that may have contributed to it and to the concern that something untoward and nefarious was going on," Simpson said. 
 
 The California Innocence Project is housed at the San Diego-based California Western School of Law and works to free wrongfully convicted inmates. The group, founded in 1999, is one of 48 loosely affiliated Innocence Projects nationwide in the Innocence Network. 
 
 Eric Volz, managing director for the David House Agency, which is coordinating legal and publicity efforts for the family, declined to comment because of the sensitive nature of the case. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Gillian Flaccus at . http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus 
 
 Also on HuffPost: Questionable Parenting Questionable Parenting 
 
 Share 1 of 43 Starved Wisconsin Teen Mike Vega points to the area of sidewalk in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012, where he discovered a starving 15-year-old after she escaped from her abusive father and stepmother last week. The severely malnourished teenager had been forced to stay in an unfinished basement for years and an alarm would sound if she went upstairs, police records say. The teen told authorities she ate what she could find in the garbage and on the floor of her father and stepmother's Madison home. Sometimes she was made to eat her feces and drink her own urine, according to a police affidavit. (AP Photo/Todd Richmond) Share this slide: 
 
 AP Starved Wisconsin Teen Mike Vega points to the area of sidewalk in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012, where he discovered a starving 15-year-old after she escaped from her abusive father and stepmother last week. The severely malnourished teenager had been forced to stay in an unfinished basement for years and an alarm would sound if she went upstairs, police records say. The teen told authorities she ate what she could find in the garbage and on the floor of her father and stepmother's Madison home. Sometimes she was made to eat her feces and drink her own urine, according to a police affidavit. (AP Photo/Todd Richmond) AP image This photo released by the Montgomery County Police Dept shows Zakieya Latrice Avery, 28. Montgomery County Police charged 21-year-old Monifa Denise Sanford and Avery with murder in the deaths of two of Avery's children, a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old. The women are also facing attempted murder charges for injuring the children's siblings, ages 5 and 8. (AP Photo/Montgomery County Police Dept.) AP image Erin Carnes Carnes reportedly left her 1-year-old son standing next to a mailbox outside the home where she though the boy's father lived in Palmetto, Fla. Police say Carnes not only left her baby and his belongings at the wrong house, but that the 27-year-old mom hadn't told the father she was giving him their child. She was jailed and charged with child abandonment in Manatee County, near Tampa Bay. Manatee County Sheriff image Carmen Ramirez In this undated photo provided by the Philadelphia Police Department, Carmen Ramirez is seen. Police say the parents of a disabled 3-year-old Philadelphia girl who died weighing just 11 pounds have been charged with murder in what authorities are calling her starvation death. Police say the parents, 30-year-old Carlos Rivera and 27-year-old Ramirez, also face counts of involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal conspiracy in the death of Nathalyz Rivera. She was found unresponsive Monday, Sept. 9, 2013, at the family's squalid home. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department) AP image Tanicia Goodwin FILE - In this March 19, 2012, file photo, Tanicia Goodwin is arraigned in Salem District Court in Salem, Mass. A court hearing is scheduled Thursday, May 3, 2012, for Goodwin, who is accused in the attempted murders of her 3-year-old daughter, Erica, and her 8-year-old son, Jamaal. Both children survived the alleged attacks in March. (AP Photo/The Boston Globe, Aram Boghosian, Pool) AP image Angelo Fabiani Arroyo Angelo Fabiani Arroyo, 40, is accused of leaving his 4-year-old child at a car crash site and fleeing the scene. California Highway Patrol image Carron Washington Carron Washington allegedly fed his 2-month-old daughter bleach because a friend from school told him it was a great cure for breathing trouble. The kid is OK, but Washington still called the incident, "probably be the dumbest decision I ever made in my life." Read the whole story here. WFTV image Michelle Windgassen; John Lewis Michelle Windgassen, 27, and John Lewis, 32, were arrested on charges of endangering a minor while they were under the influence of drugs at a Louisville restaurant. Officers found Windgassen in the bathroom snorting heroin, and Lewis admitted snorting heroin a couple hours earlier. Geobeats image Tyshekka Collier Collier is accused of walking into her son's middle school in March, 2013 and hitting a sick child she mistook for her son. She then allegedly apologized to the child and then started slapping her own son, according to a Spartanburg County, South Carolina sheriff's office arrest report. Spartanburg County sheriff's Office image Delaina Garling Having been banned from the Family Dollar Store after employees say she was stealing, this mother allegedly returned to the establishment and began pepper spraying the workers there. She then allegedly handed the can to her 7-year-old daughter, saying, "You know what to do, baby. Spray it!" The 7-year-old apparently realized this was one of those times mother does not know best. Read the whole story here. Upper Darby PD image Robert Forbes, Christina Forbes Robert Forbes and Christina Forbes have been arrested by sheriffs in Citrus County, Fla. after their 9-year-old son was found with a cockroach in his ear. Citrus County Sheriff Department image Kimberly Margeson French Kissed Son, Wlliam Partridge, To Give Him Drugs In Jail Officials in Penn Yan, NY, say Kimberly Margeson, 54, passed two Oxycodone painkiller pills to her 30-year-old, William Partridge by french kissing him during a jailhouse visit. Yates County Jail image Austin Davis Austin Davis is accused of beating his three children with a belt because one of his kids had passed gas in the car. Deland Sheriffs Dept. image Karl Karlsen For almost four years, police in upstate New York believed that Karl Karlsen's son Levi was accidentally crushed beneath a truck that he was working on in 2008. But after learning that Karlsen, 52, was the sole beneficiary of a life insurance policy on his 23-year-old son, they came to the conclusion that the father deliberately dropped the pickup on top of him. He was arrested on Nov. 23, 2012 and charged with second-degree murder AP image Koko Nicole Anderson Koko Nicole Anderson, 21, from Mesa, Ariz., is shown after being jailed on aggravated DUI and criminal damage charges in this handout photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on Friday, Nov. 16, 2012. Anderson was charged after crashing her car with her infant son inside through a gate at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Thursday night, driving on the runway in the latest in a series of similar mishaps across the country that have raised questions whether the nation's airports are truly secure. (AP Photo/Maricopa County Sheriff AP image Cesar Ruiz Ruiz is accused of pouring rum into his infant son's feeding tube in October, 2012 in Belle Chasse, La. BELLE CHASSE, La Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office image William Lewallen William Lewallen was arrested after Tulsa police found his 18-month-old daughter locked in a metal dog cage, his naked 4-year old daughter outside on a cold afternoon and him asleep in a drug or alcohol induced stupor. Tulsa County Jail image Billie Warburton Authorities in Virginia arrested 30-year-old Billie Jolene Warburton, of Norfolk, on Oct. 15, 2012, in the parking lot of a courthouse. Police allegedly found Warburton slumped over the steering wheel of her vehicle. Warburton's window was open, the motor was running and a young child was sobbing in a car seat in the back, police said. The officer allegedly observed blood on the center console and fresh injection marks on Warburton's arms. Warburton allegedly told police her child was crying because he had not been fed since the previous evening. The baby was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services and Warburton was transported to Western Tidewater Regional Jail under a no bond status for possession of heroin, driving under the influence of drugs, and felony child neglect. Suffolk Police Department image Arthur Langley Langley is accused of leaving his 1-year-old daughter home alone so he could go rob houses in October, 2012 in Brookhaven, Pa. Police Handout image Betsian Carrasquillo Peñalosa Federal agents have arrested Betsian Carrasquillo Penaloza for allegedly prostituting her 14-year-old daughter in Puerto Rico. ( teresa.canino@gfrmedia.com teresa.canino@gfrmedia.com image Jessica Schauer This 26-year-old was charged with threatening to discharge a destructive device after allegedly saying she was going to blow up her daughter's elementary school. Witnesses say that Schauer warned, "Don't bring your kid to school that day," and when asked what day she meant, she said, "The day I blow it up." Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office image Stacia Rogers And Jerry Montalvo Cops found a 2-year-old girl under this couple's care sleeping outside a Florida mall at 2:45 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2012. The two were arrested and charged with child neglect when it was found that Montalvo was allegedly on drugs, and Rogers let him leave with her daughter knowing that he was intoxicated. Facebook image Danielle Barron Barron allegedly prostituted herself while her infant child was at home. She told police that her addiction to money led to a life of crime. Sarasota County Sheriff image Sabrina Howard Howard's addiction to morphine drove her son to commit suicide, because he lived in fear that she would overdose, according to police in Indiana. Delaware County Sheriff image James D. Blanchard James D. Blanchard, 21, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for abusing his newborn son. A medical doctor said that the child has lost his vision and will likely never walk or talk. The doctor also said the injury was common with shaken babies. KHQ.com image Parents Accused Of Putting Daughter In Chicken Coop Cops say that not only did Diana and Samuel Franklin keep their 15-year-old daughter in a chicken coop, they made her wear a shock collar and used it several times. Taylor County Sheriff image Father Allegedly Kicked Son Dario Napolitano is accused of kicking his 3-year-old son at Disney World in late June, 2012. Orange County Sheriff's Office image Parents Blindfolded, Bound Their Kids Outside Kansas Walmart Adolfo Gomez Jr., 52, and his wife, Deborah Gomez, 43, both of Northlake, Ill., were arrested at a Walmart in Lawrence, Kan., after someone spotted a 5-year-old boy sitting outside a sport utility vehicle with his hands and feet bound and a blindfold covering his eyes. -AP Associated Press image Mother Tried To Sell Baby In Newspaper Brittany Hill allegedly tried to sell her 4-month-old boy in a classified ad in June, 2012. Someone was going to try and buy the baby, but decided to call Dallas police instead. Dallas County Sheriff image Brandi Baumgardner Baumgardner is accused of injecting her daughter with heroin roughly 200 times when the girl was 14-years-old. Facebook image Thar Kyi Thar Kyi, 42 of upstate New York, accidentally hit his 8-year-old son in the head with a samurai sword while fighting another man. Kyi attacked the boy's mother's boyfriend while his three children were getting ready for school in the morning. The boy was treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. Oneida County Police image 'Tanorexic' Mom Charged With Burning Daughter In May 2012, New Jersey mom Patricia Krentcil was arrested after taking her 5-year-old daughter to a tanning parlor. The daughter reportedly received severe burns from exposure to harmful ultraviolet radiation. In the aftermath of the arrest, Krentcil was banned from several local tanning salons. Krentcil's habit has also received wide criticism in mass media, including a spoof by Kristen Wiig on "Saturday Night Live." Read more. image News Informed Parents That Daughter Was Missing Employees at a Maryland Chuck E. Cheese were worried when they found a 3-year-old named Harmony apparently alone in the establishment at around 8 p.m one night in March 2012. They took the girl to a police station and shared a photo of her with local TV stations in hopes of tracking down a parent or guardian. It wasn't until Harmony's photo aired on the 11 p.m news that her parents even realized she was missing. The two had split custody of Harmony, and each had assumed that she was with other family members. Read more. image Woman Allegedly Sexted, Had Sex With Son Mistie Atkinson, 32, allegedly performed oral sex on her 16-year-old son and had sexual intercourse with him in a hotel room in Northern California. The two reconnected on Facebook after the boy's father had assumed primary custody when the child was 2. Atkinson, whom the boy's father claims had a "boyfriend-girlfriend relationship" with her son, also reportedly sent the child nude photos of herself. She pleaded no contest in a Napa County Superior Court on May 21 to charges of incest, oral copulation with a minor, contact with a minor for sexual offense, and sending harmful material to a teen. Read more. image Man Allegedly Left Toddler Home With Cereal, Went To Office Floridian Elton Jerome Davis Jr. allegedly left his 18-month-old toddler at home with a bowl of Cheerios while he went to work. An unidentified witness found the child playing with a dog on a public road. Davis was charged with child neglect on May 21 in Okaloosa County. Read more. image Mother Charged With Neglect For Dancing In Driveway While Son Slept Naked In Trash On May 17, police found Shana Bishop's 2-year-old son naked in a pile of trash on the floor of her car in South Carolina. The child was found when an unidentified resident called the police, alleging that Bishop was dancing naked in her driveway. Bishop was arrested in Spartanburg and charged with child neglect. Read more. image Marsia Emanuel Marsia Emanuel allegedly flagged a school bus in Winter Haven, Fla., boarded and beat the bus driver in front of her daughter, a student riding it already. Cops found Emanuel later at home where she dropped her underpants in front of them, they said. It's unclear what was her motive. Read more. Polk County Sheriff's Department image Misty Lawson Misty Lawson, 30, a self-described "professional baby maker" on her Facebook page, allegedly punched her son in the face and body several times during an in-home, state-mandated anger management course. Read more here. MySpace image Christina Lopez Salem police say surveillance video shows Christina Lopez watched her 17-year-old daughter dance at Presley's Playhouse Cabaret, a strip club in Oregon. Read more. Marion County Jail image Barry O'Connell Barry O'Connell, a Spokane, Wash., police officer, was suspended for three weeks after his daughter used his service weapon to accidentally shoot herself in the leg. Spokane Police Department image Elizabeth Escalona This undated handout photo from the Dallas County Sheriff's Department shows Elizabeth Escalona. The mother was facing child abuse charges, Friday, Sept. 9, 2011, after police said she glued her toddler daughter's hands to a wall, kicked her in the stomach and beat her over a potty training issue. (AP Photo/Dallas County Sheriff's Department) image Rebecca Rachelle Hill Hill was accused in October 2012 of using heroin with her 12-year-old daughter over the course of several weeks. She also allegedly told police that she often took her daughter along on shoplifting trips that financed their heroin addictions. Hennepin County Jail image Kimira Hysaw Hysaw is accused of using a stun gun on her child after he didn't ask for permission to play basketball. MyFox Austin image
– On Jan. 15, Gloria Huang, age 8, died. Of what is a question that sits at the root of this story, along with the where: Qatar. The girl was the adopted daughter of Matthew and Grace Huang, Americans who had been living in the Gulf nation for about six months with Gloria and their two boys, also adopted; Matthew, an engineer, was hired to work on a project related to the 2022 World Cup. Gloria hadn't eaten anything in the days before her death, which the Huangs attributed to eating issues: They say the child would go days without eating and then binge. What Qatari officials attribute it to is something else entirely: They allege that the Huangs intentionally kept food from the girl in an effort to kill her and profit off her organs, and are seeking the death penalty, per a website created in defense of the couple. The Huangs' lawyers will tomorrow for the first time be allowed to make their case to a judge, and the New York Times today looks at the case against them, and the racial and cultural misunderstandings at play. Gloria was adopted from Ghana at age 4, notes AP, and experts say the hunger she encountered as a very young child can translate into an eating disorder. That place of origin seemed to matter to Qatari investigators as well; their report stated that the Huangs "participated with others in child trafficking, most likely to either sell their organs or to conduct medical experiments on them." When asked to elaborate on the trafficking charge in a court hearing, one explained that "the adoption process consists of searching for children who are good-looking and well-behaved ... but the children connected to this incident are all from Africa." For the full story head to the Times, which points out that multiracial families are rare and adoption all but unheard of in Qatar.