LONDON: British prosecutors said yesterday that they were withdrawing an arrest warrant against the parents of Ashya King after they fled the country with the five-year-old boy, who has a brain tumour.
The move paves the way for the speedy release of Brett and Naghemeh King from a Spanish prison, where they have spent the last few days as their young son receives treatment in a nearby hospital.
British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the news on his Twitter feed, saying: “It’s important this little boy gets treatment & the love of his family.”
Ashya’s parents took him out of a hospital in Southampton, southern England, last week, in search of a different treatment.
The Kings are planning to sell their apartment in Malaga to fund proton beam therapy, an alternative to radiotherapy, for their son, according to their Spanish lawyer Juan Isidro Fernandez Diaz.
After the family left Britain with their seven children, police applied for an arrest warrant over fears that the condition of Ashya, who has undergone surgery and has to be fed through a special piece of equipment, could deteriorate.
Brett King, 51, and his 45-year-old wife Naghemeh were due to face a court hearing in Spain today, from where they faced extradition back home. But it was not immediately clear whether that would still go ahead or whether they would be freed beforehand.
A Spanish state prosecution source said that the prosecutors believe there was “no abandonment of the minor nor carelessness by the parents”.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which oversees criminal prosecutions in England and Wales, confirmed it was dropping the arrest warrants against the Kings.
“No further action will be taken against Mr and Mrs King and we are now in the process of communicating this decision to the Spanish authorities so that they can be reunited with their son as soon as possible,” the CPS added.
The parents were detained on Saturday but the case has prompted an outcry in Britain, where some 130,000 people have signed a petition calling for the boy to be reunited with his parents.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had said earlier yesterday that it was “not appropriate” to “throw the full force of the law” at Ashya’s parents for their actions.
The chief of police in Hampshire, the force which originally applied for the arrest warrant, said that all involved needed to ask what was best for Ashya.
“It is my view as Chief Constable that the situation today is not right,” said Andy Marsh.
“Irrespective of what has happened it is our view that Ashya needs both medical treatment and for his parents to be at his side.”
Simon Hayes, Hampshire’s police commissioner, raised questions about the information from the hospital which led to the application for an arrest warrant in the first place.
AFP
