An arrest warrant has been issued for an Australian doctor who joined Islamic State militants.
Dr Tareq Kamleh worked in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia before being recruited to the extremist group and appearing in a recruitment video calling on Muslim health professionals in the West to join him in Raqqa in Syria.
The South Australian Joint Counter Terrorism Team obtained a warrant on charges he recruited for a terrorist organisation and entered a declared area.
“Should Dr Kamleh return to Australia, this warrant authorises law enforcement to arrest him immediately,” SA Police said in a statement.
Kamleh is still a registered doctor in Australia, according to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency website.
He is also currently being investigated by the Medical Board of Australia, but authorities have declined to comment on the status of the investigation.
Kamleh maintained he had not breached any professional standards in an open letter to the agency that was posted on his Facebook page in May.
“I formally deny that I have ever taken part in unprofessional conduct which would have jeopardised my doctor-patient relationship,” he wrote.
He also denied he was brainwashed into joining IS and said his decision to venture to Syria was a “well-educated and calculated” one.
Kamleh – who now also goes by the name Abu Yousef Al-Australie – vowed never to return to Australia.
“I have finally returned home,” he said.
He has previously appeared in an IS propaganda YouTube video calling for other medical professionals to join him in the Middle East.
