'Ashya MUST be reunited with his parents': Politicians from all parties back massive campaign to free British couple held in Spain as 130,000 sign petition for them to be released
- Did police break the law by ordering arrest of anguished parents? Officers accused of over-reached powers as lawyers say there is little evidence pair committed any offence
- Arrogant doctors and a sinister abuse of State power: Damning opinion of a father who's spent 20 years fighting to get the best care for his daughter
More than 125,000 people have signed a petition demanding the
jailed parents of terminally ill Ashya King must be released and allowed
to visit their son in hospital. Supporters today went to Downing Street
to call on David Cameron to intervene and ensure Brett and Nagmeh King
are granted bail and allowed to leave a Madrid high security prison.
Since Saturday night the five-year-old has been separated from his
family and only his older brother Danny, 23, has been able to see him at
Málaga's Hospital Materno-Infanti, where the brain cancer patient is
being guarded by armed police. Ethan Dallas, 16, who started the
petition told MailOnline: 'Ashya's parents are still imprisoned. What we
want to achieve is to get his parents released and for them to be able
to choose the treatment they want for their son.' Politicians are also
calling for the family to be reunited. Nick Clegg said today it is 'not
appropriate' to 'throw the full force of the law' and Boris Johnson
blasted the 'potty' decision because 'parents and a suffering child
should be united'.
Hundreds of miles from their son Ashya, Brett and Naghmeh King face at least 72 hours in a notorious Madrid high security jail.
The couple were sent to Soto del Real prison 40km north of the Spanish capital yesterday as a judge considers their extradition case.
Mr and Mrs King appeared in court yesterday and are now being held in separate wings of the jail and not able to see eachother.
Soto del Real has 1,600 inmates and contains some of Spain's most notorious prisoners including murderers and sex offenders.
It also contains very high profile Basque separatists accused of acts of terror.
Prisoners are allowed to make two free five minute phone calls a day and allowed one face to face visitor per week.
Cells contain two prisoners and are allowed out for an hour to exercise in its sports hall.
The prison has a stark, modern design, with giant watchtower at its heart. It also has no vegetation surrounding it.
Ashya's grandmother Patricia King said that Ashya's parents have been given a 'terrible run-around' by the authorities in Madrid.
'Ashya MUST be reunited with his parents': Politicians from all parties back massive campaign to free British couple held in Spain as 140,000 sign petition for them to be released
- Brett and Nagmeh King remain in a Madrid prison, pending extradition ruling
- Ashya, 5, remains under armed guard hours away in Malaga hospital bed
- Petition for family to be reunited has attracted more than 130,000 signatures
- Supporters in Downing Street to demand that David Cameron intervenes
- Growing support as both Clegg and Boris say family should be united
- Home Secretary reveals that CPS considering dropping case against family
More than
140,000 people have signed a petition demanding the jailed parents of
terminally ill Ashya King must be released and allowed to visit their
son in hospital.
Supporters today went to Downing Street to call on David Cameron to intervene and ensure Brett and
Nagmeh King are granted bail and allowed to leave a Madrid high security prison.
Since
Saturday night the five-year-old
has been separated form his family and only his older brother Danny, 23,
has been able to see him at Málaga's Hospital Materno-Infanti, where
the brain cancer patient is being guarded by armed police.
The
Home Secretary Theresa May said this afternoon the Crown Prosecution
Service is considering scrapping their extradition back to the UK for
alleged 'cruelty
to a person under the age of 16 years'.
Ethan
Dallas, 16, who started the petition and is close to the family told
MailOnline: ‘Ashya’s parents are still imprisoned. They have been in
there for three days now. His siblings are all panicking – they have
barely slept at all.
'It is clear that five-year-old Ashya, a loving sweet little boy, has been anything but neglected by his loving family.
‘What we want to achieve is to get his parents released and for them to be able to choose the treatment they want for their son.
Scroll down for video
Tough: Yesterday a Spanish High Court judge
ruled that Mr and Mrs King (pictured leaving Velex Malaga police
station) can be held for up to 72 hours while he decides on his response
to a British extradition request. They are hundreds of miles from their
ill son Ashya, and banned from seeing him
Alone: Ashya King has been separated from his
family and remains under police guard in a hospital hundreds of miles
from his parents
Direct action: Family campaigner Sanjay Ganatra
and the King's friend Ethan hand a petition into Downing Street asking
the PM to reunite Ashya with his parents
'We
often hear parents say they would do anything in the world to help their
child. Mr and Mrs King are attempting to, but are themselves being
neglected.
'We
appeal to Mr Cameron, the Prime Minister, and the father within, to
personally make the request that Mr and Mrs King be released from
custody immediately and that all proceedings against them be halted'.
Family friend Sanjay Gamatra added: ‘Please Mr Cameron, reunite them with Ashya.
Everything else can wait. He needs his parents and his
parents need their son.’
‘Please
allow the parents to be with Ashya – everything else can wait. The
justice system will take its own course, but please, please, please let
him be back with the parents. That’s all we ask, everything else can
wait.’
David
Cameron’s official spokesman said: ‘The first thing you would want is
for their Mum and Dad to be at their bedside and that’s where every
parent would want to be.’
He added: ‘It is a very human response to do everything you can to support Ashya, as he fights so bravely against his illness.’
Mr Cameron’s spokesman also revealed that the CPS was looking again at the arrest warrant.
Nick Clegg
said today it is 'not appropriate' to 'throw the full force of the law'
and Boris Johnson blasted the 'potty' decision because 'parents and a
suffering child should be united'.
Ashya's
parents took him to Spain from Southampton General Hospital without
consent last Thursday in the hope the could sell their holiday home on
the Costa del Sol to raise money for specialist treatment not available
on the NHS.
Extraordinary
support: More than 110,000 people have signed a petition demanding that
David Cameron intervenes to have King's released
Ashya King is in the Materno Infantil Hospital in Malaga, southern Spain, and has only been able to see his oldest brother
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has told Good Morning Britain that Ashya King should be back with his family.
ASHYA'S PARENTS ARE HELD SEPARATELY IN NOTORIOUS JAIL
Hundreds of miles from their son Ashya, Brett and Naghmeh King face at least 72 hours in a notorious Madrid high security jail.
The couple were sent to Soto del Real prison 40km north of the Spanish capital yesterday as a judge considers their extradition case.
Mr and Mrs King appeared in court yesterday and are now being held in separate wings of the jail and not able to see eachother.
Soto del Real has 1,600 inmates and contains some of Spain's most notorious prisoners including murderers and sex offenders.
It also contains very high profile Basque separatists accused of acts of terror.
Prisoners are allowed to make two free five minute phone calls a day and allowed one face to face visitor per week.
Cells contain two prisoners and are allowed out for an hour to exercise in its sports hall.
The prison has a stark, modern design, with giant watchtower at its heart. It also has no vegetation surrounding it.
London
Mayor Boris Johnson said the family should be together. Speaking on his
monthly radio phone-in on LBC, he said: ‘Parents and a suffering child
should be united. If they have got a plan to treat their child they
should be supported in that.’
He stressed that he did not know the details of the case or why the police had acted so draconically.
But he added: ‘It seems potty to me frankly but I don’t know the details of the case.
‘Every parent’s instinct should be that the parents should have care of the child.
‘Somebody is going to have to do some very, very lengthy explaining about what went down.’
Former
children's minister Tim Loughton said the biggest outrage was that
Ashya's case had almost become a child protection issue and his parents
were being criminalised when that was 'clearly not the case'.
The Tory MP said an arrest warrant should not have been issued and that Mr and Mrs King should not be in custody.
He said: 'The CPS needs to drop this and make sure the parents come out and go and see their child.
'A
very urgent conversation needs to be had with the NHS as to whether
they will entertain grounds of them coming back here and going to a
private clinic for proton beam treatment, which should be NHS or
privately funded, or they should be allowed to take Ashya to Prague.'
Tory
chairman Grant Shapps wrote on Twitter: 'Have to say that if my child
was in hospital and I wanted them treated elsewhere, I would hope that
the courts would not intervene.'
The
leader of POortsmouth City Council - who applied to have the boy made a
temporary ward of court on Friday - told MailOnline the CPS must drop
the case now.
She
said: 'I think the authorities were absolutely correct to issue the
appeal and make sure that Ashya was taken to hospital. We didn't know
where he was and he is very ill.
'But
keeping him from his family is quite wrong. God forbid that something
would happen to him and his family were kept away. It is a horrific
thought.
'The CPS should drop the case today and the parents released. They could be with their son within two to three hours'
Care: Brett King (pictured with Ashya) and his
wife Nagmeh took their terminally ill son from Southampton General
Hospital without consent last Thursday. They are now being held in a
Madrid jail
Ill: Ashya's brother Naveed (pictured right) said police have been standing guard outside the hospital room to stop visitors
Mr and Mrs King are being held separately in the
Soto del Real prison 40km north of the Spanish capital yesterday as a
judge considers their extradition case
Danny King last night spoke of the trauma
caused by his parents being held for another night in a Madrid jail -
which holds Spain's most notorious prisoners - hundreds of miles from
their desperately ill child.
LEGAL EXPERTS SLAM 'MISCONCEIVED' APPROACH IN UK
The
approach taken by UK authorities to the case of brain tumour patient
Ashya King is 'misconceived', a leading lawyer has said.
John Cooper QC said the five-year-old's parents Brett and Naghmeh do not appear to have committed any crime.
The family took Ashya from Southampton General Hospital last Thursday and travelled to France with him and his six siblings before heading to the Costa del Sol in southern Spain.
Mr King, 51, and Mrs King, 45, were arrested on Saturday night in Velez-Malaga.
British police have defended their decision to request a European arrest warrant, while the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the case was under 'immediate review' and a decision will be made whether to prosecute.
Mr Cooper said: 'The approach being taken in this case is misconceived. I am concerned firstly that the CPS have authorised an approach to this investigation without any foundation in law.
'I do not see upon my analysis that the family have committed any criminal offence and if that's correct the basis firstly for the European arrest warrant and secondly for extradition proceedings is a false basis as a matter of law.
'Quite why this has happened is a matter of speculation.
'From 30 years of experience as a QC in crime and human rights I personally cannot see the basis for this application.'
A judge in Spain ruled that the Kings must be held for up to 72 hours while the court considers whether to grant a British extradition request.
Mr Cooper called for the parents to be granted bail 'if for no other reason than compassionate'.
He called on the Crown Prosecution Service to explain their decision to apply for an arrest warrant 'given the unprecedented national and international interest in this case'.
John Cooper QC said the five-year-old's parents Brett and Naghmeh do not appear to have committed any crime.
The family took Ashya from Southampton General Hospital last Thursday and travelled to France with him and his six siblings before heading to the Costa del Sol in southern Spain.
Mr King, 51, and Mrs King, 45, were arrested on Saturday night in Velez-Malaga.
British police have defended their decision to request a European arrest warrant, while the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the case was under 'immediate review' and a decision will be made whether to prosecute.
Mr Cooper said: 'The approach being taken in this case is misconceived. I am concerned firstly that the CPS have authorised an approach to this investigation without any foundation in law.
'I do not see upon my analysis that the family have committed any criminal offence and if that's correct the basis firstly for the European arrest warrant and secondly for extradition proceedings is a false basis as a matter of law.
'Quite why this has happened is a matter of speculation.
'From 30 years of experience as a QC in crime and human rights I personally cannot see the basis for this application.'
A judge in Spain ruled that the Kings must be held for up to 72 hours while the court considers whether to grant a British extradition request.
Mr Cooper called for the parents to be granted bail 'if for no other reason than compassionate'.
He called on the Crown Prosecution Service to explain their decision to apply for an arrest warrant 'given the unprecedented national and international interest in this case'.
In an interview with the BBC, he said he had finally been granted permission to visit his younger brother at Málaga's Hospital Materno-Infanti.
He
also spoke of the trauma caused by his arrested parents being held
hundreds of miles away in a Madrid jail while a Spanish court considers
whether to grant a British extradition request.
'My
whole family were just concentrating on Ashya, so them being taken away
from Ashya and Ashya being taken away from us, and our parents being
taken away from us - it's quite hard,' he said.
'We’re quite a tight family, united,' he added.
Yesterday
a Spanish High Court judge ruled that Mr and Mrs King can be held for
up to 72 hours while he decides on his response to the request.
The
couple's lawyer Juan Isidro Fernandez Diaz said Mr and Mrs King felt
there were no grounds for them to be prosecuted, adding that are
'absolutely surprirsed by the situation' as they 'never thought they had
committed any crime.'
Yesterday Ashya's brother, Naveed, told Channel 4 News: 'We're not allowed to go and see Ashya at all.'
'There
is police standing outside his hospital room. We are not allowed to go
and see him. We have tried to call the hospital but they are not
revealing any information at all to us.'
'My
mum was by his side for the whole month that he was in hospital so for
him to now suddenly not be with anyone of the family... his health might
actually deteriorate because he can't be entertained and be happy.'Ashya's grandmother Patricia King said that Ashya's parents have been given a 'terrible run-around' by the authorities in Madrid.
She
said: 'The whole thing is a huge injustice. They are still not allowed
to see Ashya, which is shocking. It's the worst thing of all. If this
carries on, it could kill him.'
Ethan
Dallas, a friend of Ashya's brother Naveed, told the programme he will
take the petition containing more than 100,000 signatures calling for
the family to be reunited to Downing Street later.
He
said: 'I think that he (David Cameron) just needs to release Brett and
his wife and allow them to choose the treatment that they see fit for
their son.'
Mr Dallas said the family are 'really stressed'.
He
said: 'I've spoken to Naveed on Skype and he's said that they are all
super-stressed, they've barely slept at all and they're just really,
really hoping to see their little brother really soon.'
Brett and Nagmeh King (right) travelled to Spain
to sell a holiday home to obtain funds for proton beam therapy for
Ashya (left). The treatment is not available through the NHS
Care: Brett and Nagmeh King pictured with desperately ill Ashya at Southampton General Hospital
Mr and Mrs
King travelled to Spain to sell a holiday home to obtain funds for
proton beam therapy, which is not available through the NHS, according
to reports.
Their son, who is suffering from a stage four brain tumour, is being cared for at the Materno-Infantil hospital in Malaga.
Speaking
to the BBC, Danny said: 'We are very grateful that he is in such a good
hospital. The only thing my parents are worried about is Ashya, I hope
my parents get released as soon as possible.'
More than 80,000 people have signed an online petition demanding Ashya is reunited with his parents.
British police have defended their decision to request a European arrest warrant.
Assistant
Chief Constable Chris Shead, of Hampshire Constabulary, said he was
aware the police's approach had created a "significant amount of debate"
but he would rather be criticised for "being proactive" than
"potentially having to explain why a child has lost his life".
Simon
Hayes, police and crime commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of
Wight, said: "Hampshire Constabulary's role, as in many other cases, was
to safeguard the interests of a very vulnerable sick young child and
find Ashya."
The Crown Prosecution Service said the case was under "immediate review" and a decision will be made whether to prosecute.
A
spokesman said it had applied for the arrest warrant "at the request of
Hampshire Police for an offence of cruelty to a person under the age of
16 years" on Friday.
The
CPS reviewed the evidence available at that time. "Further evidence is
now being provided to the CPS and so the case is under immediate
review."
The
Proton Therapy Centre in Prague confirmed it was able to treat Ashya
immediately if he was eligible for therapy, with the cost of the
treatment to be sorted out later.
Director
of strategy Iva Tatounova said Naveed had been in touch with the centre
yesterday, giving details of the Spanish doctors treating Ashya, and
saying they were willing to send the centre the result of his MRI scan.
"We
have asked them to do that, so we can assess the boy's condition...
There would have to be a recommendation from the doctors in Southampton,
but we are here, and willing to co-operate."
To sign the petition click HERE
Read more:
copy http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário