Ashya's Parents 'Begged' To See Sick Son

Ashya King's parents have arrived at court for an extradition hearing for taking him from hospital without medical consent.

Brett King, 51, and his wife Naghmeh, 45, from Portsmouth, were transported from Velez-Malaga to Madrid on Monday morning to face the extradition hearing.

They were arrested in Spain on Saturday after taking their five-year-old son, who has a brain tumour, out of Southampton General Hospital to seek specialist cancer treatment abroad.

Ashya's grandmother Patricia King called on authorities to step in and stop the hearing.

She told Sky News: "They've treated them like murderers, putting handcuffs on them and everything. There's no human rights for our family at all, it's disgusting.

"They should be held up for cruelty to a five-year-old boy who's dying of a brain tumour.

"He's there in the hospital, he doesn't know anybody, there's police guarding him, he can't speak, he doesn't understand Spanish.

"My daughter-in-law and my son have begged to see him but they've been refused.

"What we want is somebody in authority to stop this going any further."

She said that Ashya's only hope was to be allowed to get treatment abroad, adding "he will die in hospital because they can't give him any more treatment".

Ashya's brother Naveed, 20, has posted a video blog claiming the family had stocked up on the food and syringes that the boy needed ahead of their journey and had bought him a brand new wheelchair costing up to £1,600.

He said his brother was "obviously happy, he wasn't in any way in any danger and he was not neglected at all".

Since the Kings' arrest, Ashya's siblings are not thought to have been able to visit him in hospital.

Patricia King earlier said her son was selling his holiday home in Spain to pay for proton beam therapy , which costs an average of £100,000 per person.

Sky News sources said British police have arrived in Spain to question Ashya's parents.

Dr Jiri Kubes, a proton therapist in Prague, said cancer clinics in the Czech Republic could treat Ashya "within a few days" if they received a request from his doctors in the UK.

He told Sky News: "The main benefit of this [proton beam] is a reduction in the dose of radiation to the organs and abdominal and chest cavities, and also brain tissues in some cases.

"If we received a request from his paediatric oncologist, we can arrange everything within a few days."

Janice Atkinson, UKIP South East MEP, said: "This little boy needs his mother at this time. He is five years old, probably doesn't speak Spanish, and will be lying in a hospital bed in distress.

"I call on the Home Secretary to contact the Spanish authorities so that Ashya's parents are released immediately. Then she should ask the assistant chief constable of Hampshire why he 'made no apology for the police being proactive' to find Ashya."

A spokesman for David Cameron said: "I think people up and down the country will understand and be moved by the grave illness from which Ashya is suffering.

"First and foremost, the priority must be that he receives the very best and most appropriate medical care.

"Of course, I am sure that every parent wants to do the best for their child. That is probably the most human of human instincts."

On Sunday, Hampshire Constabulary Assistant Chief Constable Chris Shead defended the force's actions in pursuing the family .

The little boy, who had surgery for a brain tumour last week, is thought to be in a stable condition at the Materno-Infantil hospital in Malaga.

His six brothers and sisters are also thought to still be in the city.