British Isis doctor begs to be allowed back into UK because of ‘what he did for the NHS’

Dr Muhammad Saqib Raza wants to return from a Syrian prison
Dr Muhammad Saqib Raza wants to return from a Syrian prison

A British surgeon accused of joining Isis has made a plea to patients he treated on the NHS to help bring him home.

Dr Muhammad Saqib Raza, 40, has been locked in a jail in Syria run by Kurdish forces for more than a year.

He is being held near Raqqa, the fallen capital of the former Isis caliphate.

Dr Raza, who has dual British and Pakistani nationality, told the Daily Mirror he was a “victim of anti-terrorism terrorism”, saying the Home Office had done nothing to try to return him to the UK.

This picture taken on March 24, 2019 shows a discarded Isis group flag lying on the ground in the village of Baghouz in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province near the Iraqi border, a day after IS group’s ‘caliphate’ was declared defeated by the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (Picture: AFP/Getty)
This picture taken on March 24, 2019 shows a discarded Isis group flag lying on the ground in the village of Baghouz in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province near the Iraqi border, a day after IS group’s ‘caliphate’ was declared defeated by the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are claiming victory over Isis, which means as many as 300 Britons could ask to return home.

Dr Raza made an appeal to the patients he treated during his eight years as a facial surgeon with the NHS.

He said: “When you, my patients, wanted help, I treated you like you were my own family. Now I’m stuck in this prison hellhole and nobody cares.

“My patients, maybe you care. I beg you, patients of mine, to help me in return for what I did for you.

“I helped hundreds of you in Leicester, London, Bournemouth, Poole, Chelmsford and Oxford and other places in my eight years in the NHS as a facial surgeon.

“I beg you to raise your voices in protest and help get me home.”

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Dr Raza, who has a four-year-old son, left his home in Leicester to go to Turkey in 2017. It is alleged he had become increasingly extreme in his views, but he claims he went from Turkey to Syria on a humanitarian mission to help in a hospital.

He claims he was kidnapped on the Turkish border with Syria and sold on to Isis, who he says held him against his will.

He said: “In my cell I also heard the Coalition bombing, bombing, bombing and people dying, dying, dying. And I wished the bombs would kill me too.”

Dr Raza was captured in IS territory last year by the SDF. He claims he had just fled from Isis when he was captured by Kurdish troops.

Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces flash gestures with their hands while standing next to the SDF’s unfurled flag while on watch duty in the village of Baghouz in Syria (Picture: AFP/Getty)
Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces flash gestures with their hands while standing next to the SDF’s unfurled flag while on watch duty in the village of Baghouz in Syria (Picture: AFP/Getty)

He was found with a laptop and 13,000 euros, which Kurdish forces believe were linked to his support for Isis fighters.

Dr Raza’s wife, a Pakistani woman living in Leicester, divorced him after he left Britain, the Mirror reported.

His case follows that of teenage jihadi bride Shamima Begum, who left her home in east London when she was 15 to marry an Isis fighter in Syria.

Her British citizenship was stripped from her by home secretary Sajid Javid after she appealed to be allowed back into the UK.


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