Dangerous driver served two-month sentence for crash which killed Raffy Tsakanika, claims Qatar

A Qatari national convicted over the death of young British woman Raffy Tsakanika in a hit-and-run crash did serve his two-month prison sentence, officials from the Gulf state have claimed.

Ms Tsakanika, 21, from Cambridge, died after the car she was a passenger in was hit from behind by a second vehicle near Doha in March 2019.

The driver of the second vehicle, Qatari national Mubarak Al Hajri, was sentenced in his home country to two months in prison and ordered to pay compensation to Ms Tsakanika’s family.

But Ms Tsakanika’s parents “do not believe a word” of the Qatari authorities’ claim that the Qatari national served his sentence, her family’s spokesperson said.

The Foreign Office (FCDO) said in an email to the spokesperson for Ms Tsakanika’s family that it hoped this “written confirmation” from Qatar offered “some reassurance that the sentence has been served”.

An FCDO official said they were aware the family “regard the sentence as completely inadequate”.

The FCDO said it has relayed a request from the family for any available CCTV footage from the crash to Qatar but has yet to get a response.

At a UK inquest last year, a coroner criticised Qatari authorities for the lack of information provided.

Al Hajri’s car, which was speeding, caused the first to lose control and overturn on the four-lane carriageway and did not stop at the scene.

Last year’s inquest was told speed cameras caught Al Hajri’s car apparently undamaged shortly before the crash and damaged shortly afterwards, but these images were not provided to the UK coroner by Qatari authorities.

The FCDO said it received confirmation in writing from the Qatari authorities that Al Hajri served his sentence.

The statement from the Qatari authorities reads: “In reference to the British Embassy’s request for a written confirmation that Mr Mubarak Rashid Saad Al Khayareen Al Hajri has served his prison sentence.

"Kindly be informed that the competent authorities stated that the aforementioned executed the sentence issued against him (imprisonment for a period of two months and a fine of thirty thousand riyals (£6,400))… by detaining him from the date of June 17 2021 until the date of August 12 2021.”

Radd Seiger, a spokesperson for Ms Tsakanika’s family, urged the FCDO to “use their diplomatic muscle to extract the information the coroner needs”.

He said: “At Raffy’s inquest, the coroner was scathing in his condemnation of the Qataris for failing to hand key documents and CCTV footage to him for his inquiry.

“One would have thought ministers at the FCDO would have taken note of that and stepped in to insist that their counterparts in Doha stepped up to the plate.

“Raffy’s parents have waited patiently for that to happen for months, only to be told now that the junior department at the FCDO, the consular division, are themselves now trying to seek the documents from the Qataris, who have consistently ignored all previous requests from the consular division.

“We have accordingly once again asked for a meeting with senior officials at the FCDO so that they can look their own citizens in the eye and explain to them now that at long last they are going to use their diplomatic muscle to extract the information the coroner needs and to give the answers the family need in order to help them move forward following this desperately sad tragedy, which between them the Qatari and British authorities have compounded.”

He said there “must also be a full inquiry into this case as to what has gone so badly wrong and what is going to be done to ensure there is no repeat”.

The FCDO has been approached for comment.

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