Police have searched a house in Perth, Western Australia, believed to be connected to Australian doctor Tareq Kamleh, who was featured in a recent Islamic State propaganda video.
Kamleh, who appeared under the name Abu Yusuf al-Australi in a video posted on Friday and called for other Muslim doctors to join the “Islamic State Health Service”, is understood to have grown up in Western Australia and was working in the state before leaving for Syria.
On Sunday, WA police searched a home in the Perth suburb of Thornlie that is believed to be owned by the 29-year-old’s family.
The state’s police minister, Liza Harvey, refused to comment on the search on Monday, saying only that she took “great comfort” in the relationship between WA police and national bodies such as the Australian federal police, Australian Crime Commission and customs.
“They’re there, they’re doing a great job. It gives me great comfort that we have a very good system in place,” Harvey said.
Michael Gannon, president of the WA branch of the Australian Medical Association, told the West Australian on Monday that he was “appalled” that an Australian doctor would join Islamic State, saying: “It’s mind-boggling that the death cult could hold appeal for an educated man.
“He’s involved in an evil, evil cult and I think he should face much greater sanction than just being told you can’t be a doctor in Australia any more,” Gannon said.
The prime minister, Tony Abbott, and the acting opposition leader, Tanya Plibersek, have both condemned the recruitment video, with Abbott telling reporters in France that, “doctors should be saving life not taking life, that is at the heart of the medical ethos.”
The video, which appears to be part of a new series promoting the services run by the caliphate, shows Kamleh in a maternity ward in the Islamic State stronghold of Al-Raqqa and saying that he regrets not coming to join Islamic State sooner.
“After being here, it’s disappointing to think how many fellow Muslim brothers and sisters who are in the medical field … are still living in the west,” he says.
“Please consider coming, please don’t delay, it’s not equipment that we’re lacking, it’s truly just the staff.”
Kamleh studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and had residencies in the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital and Mackay Base Hospital before returning to Perth.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency lists his most recent place of practice as Subiaco, and a photos on his Facebook profile dated December 2014 shows him in the elevator of a private hospital in a different Perth suburb.
That same profile lists his interests as travelling, surfing and camping, and says American Dad is one of his favourite television programmes.
According to the Adelaide Advertiser, Kamleh stocked up on outdoor gear in a Perth shop in December and told the store owner he was going to join Doctors without Borders.
“He showed no sign of being a radical … I’ve been to the region as a soldier and he wanted to know about it, but he never mentioned Islam or joining Isis,” he said.