British chemist ‘caught fighting for ISIS’ in Syria was ‘struck off’ in 2014

A British pharmacist held in Syria accused of fighting for ISIS was once struck off for falsifying records at practices in the Midlands, it has emerged.

Video footage shows Mohammed Anwar Miah, from Birmingham, blindfolded and being interrogated by Kurdish fighters on a pick-up truck after his capture in Syria’s Deir ez-Zur province last month.

The 40-year-old claimed to be a doctor from Birmingham and insisted he had only been working in hospitals. A relative of Mr Miah has insisted he ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly’.

It has since emerged that in 2014, the pharmacist and his business partner were struck off.

A British pharmacist held in Syria accused of fighting for ISIS was once struck off for falsifying records at practices in the Midlands, it has emerged. Video footage (pictured) shows Mohammed Anwar Miah, from Birmingham, blindfolded and being interrogated by Kurdish fighters on a pick-up truck after his capture in Syria’s Deir ez-Zur province last month

According to The Times, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) found the pair had falsified records and invented staff members in a bid to hide a lack of workers at pharmacies they ran in Birmingham and Walsall.

They were found to have been trying to save cash by not taking on extra staff – despite contracting with the NHS to stay open for 100 hours a week, the newspaper reports.

The two men looked to conceal their ‘practically impossible’ hours at the community outlets, it was said.

The Times quotes a male relative as describing Mr Miah as a ‘caring person’ who ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly’ and was too physically ‘fragile’ to have been fighting while a friend said Mr Miah had not shown a particular interest in religion.

The relative said: ‘Last I heard he went abroad, to live in Bangladesh and that he was happy but I don’t know what happened from there. I don’t know what he would be doing there but if he has it would have been to genuinely help people.’

In the video, Mr Miah, who spoke with a Birmingham accent, was asked whether he was part of ISIS. 

He said: ‘I came here to work with the general people and work in general hospitals. I’ve been working in hospitals since I came here.

‘I have been working in areas controlled by Daesh, but I have worked with the general people. They were controlled by Daesh but I was working with the general people. I am a doctor, I am a qualified pharmacist, I studied medicine and pharmacy.’

He was arrested in the city of Deir ez-Zour one month ago, the Kurdish military Twitter channel International Volunteers Report said.

The footage included a caption in French, ‘J’en fais quoi?’, meaning ‘What do I do with this?’

Terrorism experts last night said the video raised troubling questions about how many British extremists were still hiding in Syria and Iraq despite the terror group losing its strongholds of Raqqa and Mosul.

Shiraz Maher of Kings College London said: ‘The broader question is, how many foreigners got away and survived the fall of Mosul or Raqqa? Where are they today? What are they doing? The idea that we’re coming to the end of this conflict is rebuked by incidents like this.’

Mr Maher, director at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, said: ‘If this man went to Syria just under four years ago, he went just after the Islamic State Caliphate was declared.

‘He would have had to give bayah [oath of allegiance] to IS, just like you do in a UK citizenship ceremony, so it would make him part of Daesh.’

Miah may have come into contact with other British jihadis. The security services say around 900 Britons have travelled to Syria since 2011, including the executioner Jihadi John killed by an air strike in 2015.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk