A doctor who fled to the Middle East after being found guilty of abusing his wife has been struck off.
Ammar Abdulla Alrahow had been fighting to stay on the UK register despite now living in Iraq, and had dialled in to the misconduct hearing to protest his innocence.
The 61-year-old, who escaped to his homeland before his court sentencing, told the Medical Practitioners Tribunal the charges against him were simply ‘allegations’.
But now the tribunal has erased his name from the medical register, meaning he can not practise medicine in the UK.
It said it had ‘determined an immediate suspension is necessary to protect confidence in the medical profession’, and it was ‘in the wider public interest’.
It appears unlikely Alrahow will ever return to the UK – an arrest warrant is in place and he has insisted he will fly back only if a court guarantees his freedom so he ‘can clear his name’.
During the tribunal process Duncan McPhie, representing the General Medical Council, called Alrahow a ‘convicted criminal and an international fugitive from justice’.
Mr McPhie said Alrahow ‘does not accept the convictions’ and his inability to do so and his ‘refusal to return to Scotland to face sentencing’ indicates a ‘complete lack of insight’.
Ammar Abdulla Alrahow who used to work at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, pictured, was found guilty at the town’s sheriff court of one count of breaking domestic abuse laws and two counts of breaching his bail conditions in September 2023
The 61-year-old, who escaped to his homeland before his court sentencing, told the Medical Practitioners Tribunal the charges against him were simply ‘allegations’. Pictured: Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) headquarters in Oxford Street, Manchester
Disgraced Alrahow, who used to work at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, was found guilty at the town’s sheriff court of one count of breaking domestic abuse laws and two counts of breaching his bail conditions in September 2023.
He was bailed and ordered to return to the court in October to be sentenced. But he then fled the country, using Iraqi travel documents.
Court papers state that between April 1, 2019 and September 28, 2021 Alrahow ‘engaged in a course of behaviour which was abusive of your partner or ex-partner’.
They also state he seized her ‘by the throat’ and ‘by the hair’, and went on to ‘punch and kick her on the head and body, [and] seize her by the neck and compress same’.
Alrahow told the tribunal: ‘I believe my registration should not be affected because all of these are allegations, they are not confirmed.’
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk