Rafaelle Tsakanika: Missing facts over woman's Qatar death - coroner

A coroner has criticised Qatari authorities for a lack of information over the death of a 21-year-old beautician in a car crash.

Rafaelle Tsakanika, from Cambridge, was in a Toyota Land Cruiser when it was struck from behind by a speeding vehicle in Doha in March 2019.

The driver, Mubarak Al Hajri, 46, was sentenced to two months in prison.

Area coroner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Simon Milburn, said documents provided were not accurate.

"The lack of that information has no doubt been an added source of distress to Raffy's family," said Mr Milburn, who added that documents from Qatar did not provide the correct time and location of the incident.

"The fact that the fullest information was not available is entirely due to the limited assistance offered by the Qatari authorities, either because a full forensic investigation was never carried out or, if it was, the results of that investigation have never been provided."

At the inquest at Peterborough Town Hall, Mr Milburn concluded her death was the result of a road traffic collision.

She died of severe traumatic injuries, following the crash on Al Shamal Road shortly after midnight on 30 March 2019.

A speed camera clocked Al Hajri's white vehicle travelling at 118mph (191km/h) before the collision and a second camera clocked his car at 112mph (181km/h) afterwards.

Ms Tsakanika's 20-year-old friend suffered serious injuries after being thrown from the car, which lost control and overturned.

Her family previously described Al Hajri's sentence, a teacher who was convicted of causing her death, of fleeing the scene and of speeding, as "pitiful".

Mr Milburn, who said road camera images were never provided to him, apologised to the family for not providing "all of the answers you wanted".

Her family moved to Qatar because her construction specialist stepfather was involved in building some of the World Cup stadiums.

Ms Tsakanika previously worked as a West End make-up artist.

"This has been the most horrendous three-and-a-half years of our lives," said her mother Jo Sullivan, speaking after the inquest.

"I cannot believe the way the Qataris treated us from the moment we found Raffy dead in the hospital mortuary ourselves, with no-one in authority offering to help us when she went missing."

Her stepfather, Donal Sullivan, called for Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to meet the family "to discuss what is going to be done".

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We have provided support to the family of a woman who died in Qatar in 2019 and raised her case with the Qatari authorities at a senior level.

"We stand ready to offer further consular assistance as appropriate."

The BBC has contacted the government in Qatar for comment.

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]