Ill UK child’s parents freed from jail

The British couple who were detained for taking their ill son, Ashya King, from hospital against medical advice has been freed from a Spanish jail.

Brett and Naghemeh King were released on Tuesday after UK prosecutors withdrew a European arrest warrant and extradition plans.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) decision came after over 200,000 people signed a petition demanding the couple must be released and allowed to visit their son in hospital.

A Spanish judge ordered the parents’ release after the CPS reviewed the case and said, “We consider there is insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for any criminal offence.”

Ashya’s parents were detained after removing their five-year-old son from a hospital in Southampton and taking him to Spain.

“When Ashya went missing last week we had no option but to call the police because we did not know where he was or what his parents’ intentions were,” a hospital spokesman said.

The child’s disappearance from hospital on Thursday led to searches in France and Spain.

Ashya was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which was successfully removed via surgery last month.

In order to prevent the tumor’s return, the child’s parents wanted him to be treated with Proton beam therapy, which is not available in the UK.

“Proton beam is so much better in children with brain cancer,” King said in a YouTube video, adding, “It zones in on the area whereby normal radiation passes right through his head and comes out the other side, destroys everything in his head.”

SRK/AS/MHB