Qatar Court Frees U.S. Couple Tried over Daughter Death

A Qatari court released on Wednesday a U.S. couple on trial for allegedly causing the death of their eight-year-old adopted daughter to sell her body parts, judicial sources said.

Matthew and Grace Huang are American citizens of Asian origin held in Qatar since January, when their daughter Gloria died in the Gulf state, according to the "Free Matt and Grace" website.

The couple, who moved to Qatar in 2012, were at the hearing as seven of their friends appeared as witnesses and denied accusations they had starved Gloria to death, the judicial sources said.

The court of first instance in Doha ordered the release of the Huangs but imposed a travel ban on them.

The "Free Matt and Grace" website says the daughter, who had been adopted from an orphanage in Ghana, died "suddenly" on January 15.

It says she had suffered from eating disorders which "likely were triggered by the extreme poverty she endured at an early age".

The Huangs reportedly have two other adopted African children who they sent back to stay with relatives in the United States.

The website says police accuse the couple of having adopted the children "in order to harvest their organs, or perhaps to perform medical experiments on them".

The next hearing in the trial was set for December 3.