Family’s grief heightened by ‘cold’ Qataris
Nation failed to co-operate with inquest into death of young British woman hit by speeding driver in Doha
QATAR has been accused by a coroner of adding to the distress of a grieving family by failing to co-operate with an inquest into the death of a young British woman in Doha.
Rafaelle Tsakanika, a 21-year-old beautician from Cambridge, was a passenger in a Toyota Land Cruiser when it was hit from behind by a vehicle that had been travelling at 118mph in March 2019. It was being driven by Mubarak al Hajri, a Qatari citizen, who received a “pitiful” two-month sentence after being convicted in the country of causing Ms Tsakanika’s death, speeding and fleeing the scene.
Yesterday, Simon Milburn, area coroner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, apologised to her family, saying he could not fully provide answers about her death “in very large part… due to the lack of detailed forensic information that came out of Qatar”.
Ms Tsakanika’s mother, Jo Sullivan, told The Daily Telegraph of the ordeal her family had suffered at the hands of the Qatari authorities.
Ms Tsakanika had been living with her mother and stepfather in Doha at the time, as her stepfather was helping to build stadia for the World Cup.
After she failed to return home from a night out, they were forced to launch a frantic search of a local hospital because police were “unhelpful”.
They eventually visited the mortuary to “eliminate it”, only to see a doctor standing behind a desk holding a photocopy of their daughter’s passport.
“At that point, cold sweat came over me,” said Ms Sullivan through tears.
“I just said, ‘Why? Why have you got that? Why have you got my daughter’s passport?’ and, as cold as that, she pointed at some steel drawers and said, ‘you want to see?’. Truly, truly, that’s the first I knew that she had been killed. As cold as that, without offering me a seat, without saying they’re sorry, without a glass of water. They open this drawer and there is Raffy’s injured body just lying in this steel drawer.”
The family then faced an exhausting battle to try to get the Qatari authorities to take Ms Tsakanika’s death seriously. At one point, Ms Sullivan claimed, an official at the prosecutors’ office in Qatar told them: “You need to stop doing this now, it was an accident, it was God’s will, just move on.”
Eventually, following strenuous efforts from the family which saw them do much of the investigative and administrative work, Al Hajiri was taken to court and convicted.
The inquest into her death heard that the crash caused Ms Tsakanika’s vehicle to lose control and overturn.
The coroner said: “The Qatari documents provided do not, sadly, provide an accurate time and location of Raffy’s death.
“The lack of that information has no doubt been an added source of distress to Raffy’s family.”
The coroner said that potential witnesses based in Qatar took no part in proceedings “despite attempts to engage by the coroner’s service”.
Her cause of death was recorded as traumatic head and abdominal injuries.
Following the conclusion of the inquest, Ms Sullivan said: “We are empty shells of our real selves and are still struggling to come to terms with the fact that Raffy is not here.
“Having supported that awful country as they were attempting to join the global stage as a major player, I cannot believe the way the Qataris treated us.”