A copy of the photo released with a Yellow Notice issued by the international police force Interpol, Friday Aug. 29, 2014, asking for help to locate the missing five-year old boy Ashya King, who is believed to be in France. Police are searching for the five-year-old British boy who is suffering with a severe brain tumor whose parents, believed to be Jehovahs Witnesses, took him out of a British hospital on Thursday and were last seen in France. The boy needs urgent medical treatment. (AP/Interpol)\n
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Parents Arrested After Taking Their Son for New Cancer Treatment in Another Country Have Charges Dropped
September 02, 2014
"Not right."
LONDON (AP) — U.K. prosecutors are withdrawing the arrest warrant in the case of a British couple who took their 5-year-old son out of the country in hopes of getting a new type of radiation therapy for his brain tumor.
The Crown Prosecution Service made the move Tuesday in a hearing at Britain's High Court.
Ashya King's case has riveted Britain, with heated debate as to whether authorities acted acceptably in chasing the parents through Europe after they left Southampton General Hospital last week without the consent of doctors.
Police were searching for the five-year-old British boy who is suffering with a severe brain tumor whose parents took him out of a British hospital on Thursday. The warrant that resulted in arrest of the boy's parents in Spain was dropped Tuesday. (AP/Interpol)
Brett and Naghemeh King took Ashya out of England and traveled to Spain, where they planned to sell a property to pay at least $33,000 for proton beam radiation therapy in the Czech Republic or the U.S. They were arrested on a British warrant.
But police on Tuesday said the current situation was "not right." Andy Marsh, chief constable of Hampshire Police, says their intent was to secure his safety — "not to deny him family support at this particularly challenging time in his life."
Britain's leader also waded into the national argument as to whether it was appropriate to throw the full weight of the law at a British couple.
Critically-ill Ashya King driven to Spain by his parents was receiving medical treatment for a brain tumor in a Spanish hospital as his parents awaited extradition to Britain, police said Sunday Aug. 31 2014. By Tuesday, British authorities dropped the arrest warrant against his parents. (AP/Hampshire Police)
Prime Minister David Cameron told the radio station LBC that the plight of Ashya reminded him of his late son Ivan, who had cerebral palsy and epilepsy. The prime minister recalled having his own son sit on his lap and feeding him through a tube.
"I just hope there'll be an outbreak of common sense — and a rapid outbreak of common sense — so that the family can be reunited with this young boy and the best treatment can be given to him, either in the United Kingdom or elsewhere," he said.
A Spanish court spokesman declined immediate comment on when the parents could be released, but a lawyer for the couple said the judge has the options of releasing them immediately or having them stay overnight in jail to be released at the previously scheduled court hearing at 11 a.m. (0900GMT) Wednesday.
"The only reason for them to stay in prison has expired," lawyer Francesco Luca Caronna told The Associated Press. "If the system works, they should open the doors to the jail immediately."
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