A San Gabriel Valley, Calif., couple living in Qatar were each sentenced to three years in prison Thursday for the starving death of their adopted daughter.
Gloria Huang, 5, died Jan. 15, 2012, after parents Matthew and Grace Huang found her unresponsive in her room at the family's home in Qatar.
The Qatar medical examiner said Gloria died of starvation and dehydration, and the Huangs, parents of two other children adopted from Africa, were imprisoned, accused of starving their daughter to death with the intent of selling her organs.
Defense lawyers argue the Huangs had been trying to manage Gloria's eating disorder. They said she would go days without eating, binge on junk food, rummage through garbage for food, or steal food and hide it in her room.
The case drew international attention, with some accusing Qatar officials of deep-rooted prejudices against interracial families, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Huangs said they plan to appeal the verdict."One of the very real problems of this case is that Qatar officials looking at it absolutely don't understand how an Asian American couple could adopt a special-needs African American child," said Richard Grenell, spokesman for the David House Agency, a Los Angeles-based crisis group.
[Los Angeles Times]
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