[JURIST] A Qatar [official website] appeals court on Sunday acquitted a US couple who faced charges of parental neglect after their adopted daughter passed away. Matthew and Grace Huang’s daughter was eight years old and was adopted from an orphanage in Ghana. The daughter’s cause of death reported by Qatar’s Council of Health included complication of cachexia and dehydration. These complications alone were the major initial factors at the trial court level when the couple was convicted of failing to nourish their child. The appeals court overturned [Al Jazeera report] this decision based on witness testimony, which illustrated that the US couple were good parents and did not neglect their adopted daughter. The ruling from the appeals court allows the couple to leave the country. As a result of the controversy surrounding the trial, many advocacy and human rights groups have criticized Qatar’s judicial system. The US State Department [official website] deputy Marie Harf stated in regards to the process of the trial, “[w]e have been concerned by indications that not all of the evidence was being weighed by the court and that cultural misunderstandings may have been leading to an unfair trial.” An interest group tiled Free Matt and Grace [advocacy website] has also started a website advocating for the release of the US couple and provide background information about the situation.

Qatar has faced international criticism regarding the merits of its judicial system. In January the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers [official profile] urged [JURIST report] Qatar to consolidate its justice system and address its shortcomings. Last year the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] criticized [JURIST report] the harsh prison sentence for a poet in Qatar accused of insulting the country’s national symbols. In 2012 Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] urged [JURIST report] the ruler of Qatar not to approve a proposed media law, which was meant to censor rather than promote free press. In 2011 the OHCHR condemned [JURIST report] Qatar’s extradition of a rape victim back to her home country of Libya.