Raffy Tsakanika,: Mother says Foreign Office adds to misery of crash

Rafaelle Tsakanika, 21, from Cambridge, was killed in a two-car crash near Doha in 2019

The mother of a woman who died in a hit-and-run crash in Qatar has accused the UK Foreign Office of watching from the sidelines as her "hell continues".

Raffy Tsakanika, 21, from Cambridge, died after the car she was travelling in was struck near Doha in March 2019.

Qatari authorities were criticised by a British coroner last year for the lack of information provided to her inquest.

Jo Sullivan had urged the Foreign Office to help but said it seemed "determined "to "compound our misery".

A vehicle, travelling at "excess speed", struck the car Ms Tsakanika was in from behind and caused it to lose control and overturn in the four-lane carriageway in the capital of the Persian Gulf state.

It did not stop at the scene.

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However, its driver - Qatari national Mubarak Al Hajri - was sentenced in Qatar to two months in prison over the crash and ordered to pay compensation to Ms Tsakanika's family.

Ms Tsakanika's family are urging the Foreign Office to press Qatari authorities to release all available evidence

Ms Sullivan said she has asked for a meeting with the Foreign Office "so they can look us straight in the face and tell us what diplomatic and political pressure they are going to put on the Qatari government to help us".

In a letter dated 26 February, Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said the UK "cannot interfere in the legal processes of another country".

He wrote: "A decision on what information was required and what to provide for the inquest was determined by the coroner and the Qatari authorities.

"In our experience it differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as to what the relevant local authorities are willing or able to share with UK coroners."

Lord Ahmad said officials in Doha could seek written confirmation from Qatari authorities that Al Hajri had served his sentence "if that would provide acceptable evidence to the family of Ms Tsakanika".

'Any meaningful support'

Ms Tsakanika's family is being been supported by Charlotte Charles, whose son Harry Dunn was killed in a crash outside a US military base in Northamptonshire in 2019, and his family's adviser, Radd Seiger.

Ms Sullivan said she knew Qatari authorities were "sitting on further evidence about what happened to our beautiful daughter".

The crash happened roughly 10 miles (16km) north of central Doha - host city of the recent football World Cup

"Our hell continues and it now seems more than clear that the FCDO [Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office] are determined to not only continue to watch from the sidelines, but, worse, to compound our misery," she said.

"You would have thought the FCDO, who are there to represent us, would have been in touch themselves, straight after the inquest, to tell us what they were going to do to support us, but clearly we were just being naive.

"Our adviser Radd Seiger is once again now having to bend over backwards to extract any meaningful support from our government who are there to protect us and our rights."

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

The coroner concluded Ms Tsakanika died as the result of a road traffic collision.