Matt Huang and Grace Huang have been jailed in the Middle East

Matt Huang and Grace Huang have been jailed in the Middle East on a charge of murder with intent and are being accused of starving their 8-year-old daughter to death, according to a coalition of groups that are working on the case from the U.S. and trying to draw publicity to what they say are unjust arrests.

The couple was arrested in Doha, Qatar, shortly after their daughter, Gloria, died Jan. 15, said Alex Simpson, associate director of the nonprofit California Innocence Project. The Huangs adopted the child from Ghana at age 4.

The couple’s two other children, also adopted from Africa, have been banned from leaving the country and are being cared for by their grandmother, who is living with them there.

But wait, there’s more:

The investigative reports theorize that Matthew and Grace “bought” their children in order to harvest their organs, or perhaps to perform medical experiments on them. Since, the Huangs did not share their “hereditary traits” and raised concerns that the children were part of a human trafficking operation or were “bought” for organ harvesting, according to the family’s website.

Their daughter, who was severely malnourished in early childhood, would periodically refuse food for several days and then binge eat or get food from bizarre sources, such as garbage cans or from strangers – a behavior her parents traced to her impoverished upbringing and were trying to address. She would also try to leave the house at night in search of food and pick through the medicine cabinet on late-night binges, according to a report prepared in the U.S. by Janice Ophoven, a pediatric forensic psychologist who reviewed the case for the family.

The behavior is not uncommon in adopted children who have suffered from severe malnutrition in their past, the report says.

Gloria, who was slight for her age, also had been treated for an intestinal parasite, and recent blood tests had showed severely low levels of a certain type of white blood cell that could have been a sign of an underlying bone marrow condition, as well as a vitamin D deficiency.

A Qatari doctor who conducted Gloria’s autopsy found that the child’s hips, ribs and spine protruded and concluded the cause of death was dehydration and wasting disease.

Supporters in the U.S. say those diagnoses aren’t possible and don’t take into account the child’s long history of eating disorders and malnourishment that caused lifelong health concerns, as well as recent blood work.

The California Innocence Project has since taken on their case. You can see more at their website http://www.freemattandgrace.com