Qatar News: John Kerry Applauds Country for Lifting US Couple's Travel Ban Following Their Release From Prison

Qatar has lifted a travel ban that had kept two American citizens from leaving the Mideast nation even though the couple had been cleared in the death of their child.

According to CNN, an appellate court had acquitted Matthew and Grace Huang of starving their adopted daughter in 2013, but immigration officials at Hamad International Airport would not allow them to leave Sunday.

The court's stance has not changed, and the Huangs' confiscated passports will be returned to them, according to the U.S. mission in Doha, the country's capital.

U.S. Ambassador Dana Shell Smith told Time magazine that the travel ban had been lifted and the couple can leave Wednesday.

The original delay was due to legal procedures that proceed once people have been cleared of a crime, diplomatic sources told CNN.

Matthew Huang was working for an international company, which is constructing sites for the soccer World Cup to be held there in 2022, when he and his wife were arrested in January 2013 following the death of their 8-year-old daughter Gloria.

The Qatari prosecutor sought to paint the Huangs as inhumane, alleging they bought their adopted daughter cheaply from her poverty-stricken parents in Africa. In March of 2013, they were convicted of starving Gloria to death and sentenced to three years in prison.

After nearly a year in incarceration, the couple was released pending an appeal.

On Sunday, Appellate Judge Abdulrahman al-Sharafi overturned their conviction, finding faults with the forensic reports used to convict them and noting that the trial judge did not properly consider testimony from witnesses who said Gloria had not been deprived.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States applauds the decision to let the Huangs depart, The Associated Press noted. He said he was looking forward to seeing the Los Angeles couple reunited with their other children on return.

After spending time in a Qatari orphanage on the couple's arrest, the Huangs' two sons, also adopted from Africa, moved back to the United States to live with Grace's mother, CNN said.