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September 2, 2014

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Granny of ailing UK boy blasts authorities

THE grandmother of a 5-year-old British boy with a severe brain tumor accused United Kingdom authorities yesterday of cruelty for seeking an arrest warrant and pursuing the family abroad after his parents removed him from a British hospital against medical advice.

Hours later, a Spanish judge ordered the parents’ detention for 72 hours while a court in Madrid considers whether to grant Britain an extradition request.

Grandmother Patricia King told the BBC it was an “absolute disgrace” that her son and daughter-in-law were accused of child neglect after they took Ashya from Southampton General Hospital last week. The family says UK authorities had refused to give Ashya the kind of treatment he needed.

The family has criticized Britain’s health care system, saying he needs an advanced treatment option called proton beam therapy and that it wasn’t being made available to him.

King’s parents were arrested on Sunday in southeastern Spain after a European arrest warrant was issued by Interpol at the request of British police. Their son is receiving medical treatment for a brain tumor. After his parents’ arrest, he was admitted to a Spanish hospital.

King says the authorities are “the ones who are cruel, because they have taken poor little Ashya, who is dying of a brain tumor, and they won’t let the parents, my son and daughter-in-law, they won’t let them see him at all.”

Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman also weighed in on the matter, saying people all over the country have been moved by the family’s plight.

British police say the parents, Brett and Naghemeh, are suspected of neglect.

Spanish National Court Judge Ismael Moreno ordered the parents’ detention for 72 hours, a court spokesman said. Moreno could have opted to let the parents go free while the extradition case is considered.




 

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