Perth-based doctor, Tareq Kamleh, is still registered to practice here in Australia, despite going to Syria to join the Islamic State and creating a propaganda video encouraging other Australian doctors to join him.
The Advertiser reported that the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency said it was unable to comment on the case.
“The role of the Medical Board of Australia is to protect the public and manage risk to patients,” the Agency said in a prepared statement.
“The Board and AHPRA are not able to comment on this matter now, as doing so could compromise any future regulatory action.”
The Medical Board can deregister doctors convicted of criminal offences and take action against health professionals whose conduct is “inconsistent with the practitioner being a fit and proper person to hold registration in the profession”.
Kamleh studied at The University of Adelaide, before moving to Mackay Base Hospital in Queensland, then moved to Perth where he was practicing until late 2014.
In his video, he voices being “very happy” that he is in Syria, and that he “wished [he’d] come a lot sooner”.
The SMH reported yesterday that the doctor had a ‘seismic shift’ in personality when working in Mackay, going from a partying, heavy-drinking ‘playboy’ to practicing as a strict Muslim after a camping trip in 2013. The doctor had grown up in a devout Muslim household, but had a reputation in Adelaide as a “partyboy” and a “sleaze” who would allegedly often come up behind women and put his exposed penis on their shoulder, according to a former colleague.
Kamleh has a license to practice until September 30th of this year.
via The Advertiser.
