A former pain doctor in Daphne, Rassan Tarabein, has had a warrant issued for his arrest after failing to return to the United States from a trip to Syria, he said in a recent court filing.
The Motion
According to a motion Tarabein filed Monday in federal court, he acknowledges that a warrant has been issued for his arrest and has asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama to provide him with a public defender.
His previous lawyer, Josh Briskman, dropped him as a client, Tarabein said in the motion.
“The reported warrant and any resulting supervised-release proceedings expose Movant to serious consequences, including a possible deprivation of liberty,” Tarabein wrote.
Briskman confirmed when contacted Tuesday that he no longer represents Tarabein, but declined to comment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama, which is prosecuting Tarabein, declined to confirm whether the warrant was active.
The Trip to Syria
Tarabein first traveled to Syria in June on a travel permit issued by the court to visit family. Shortly after arriving, he said, he was prevented from leaving by the Syrian government.
“Unfortunately, I learned today that a legal action has apparently been filed in Syria seeking to prevent me from leaving the country (Syria),” Tarabein wrote. “At this time, I have very limited information, but I have been informed that I am not permitted to depart Syria until I appear before a court at a hearing that has yet to be scheduled.”
He framed his position as compliance with his supervision conditions rather than defiance of them. “The Probation Office expressly instructed me to obey the laws of every country I visit, and I fully intend to do so,” he wrote. “Accordingly, I do not intend to violate Syrian law by attempting to leave the country in any unauthorized manner unless I receive lawful legal guidance permitting otherwise.”
The Bind
The argument in the filing rests on a genuine conflict between two obligations. A person on federal supervised release must return as directed by the court and the Probation Office; the same person is also directed not to violate the laws of any country he is in.
Whether a foreign travel ban excuses a failure to return is a question courts assess skeptically, particularly where the defendant’s history includes prior attempts to leave the country. The court will weigh the documentation supporting the claim rather than the claim itself.
The 2023 Conviction
Tarabein was convicted in 2023 and sentenced to four years in federal prison for bank fraud, making false statements to federal agents, willfully refusing to pay court-ordered restitution and aggravated identity theft. As of last year he has been out of prison on supervised release.
Until earlier this year, he was also facing state charges of making false statements to a government official in an attempt to change his name and potentially leave the country in 2025, the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office previously said. Prosecutors dismissed their case against Tarabein in May, court records show.
The federal case is also partly ongoing as he challenges the original terms of his sentence.
The Original Case
Tarabein pleaded guilty in 2017 to charges of health care fraud and unlawful distribution of controlled substances, and was ordered to pay more than $15 million in restitution to his victims.
He was sentenced in 2018 to five years in prison but was released in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What Happened Next
According to court records, Tarabein began reissuing cashier’s checks to himself in 2020 while in home confinement in Fairhope, and for the next two years made no payments toward restitution.
In 2021, records state, he fraudulently deposited money into his bank account using another account he had agreed to forfeit in his prior conviction.
Tarabein was arrested in 2022 at Pensacola International Airport, where authorities said he was found in possession of a $31,000 counterfeit check representing a previous victim who had lost tens of thousands of dollars.
After his 2023 sentencing, he still owed about $9 million in restitution.
Why the Restitution Matters
The unpaid restitution is the thread running through the entire case. Tarabein’s 2023 conviction included willfully refusing to pay court-ordered restitution as a distinct count, and roughly $9 million remained owed to victims of the original health care fraud after that sentencing.
For the people the restitution was ordered for, each additional year without payment is a practical loss, and a defendant outside the country is beyond the reach of the collection mechanisms available to the court.
Where Things Stand
According to Monday’s filings, Tarabein is still being held in Syria while legal proceedings there play out. The exact nature of the charges against him in that country is unclear.
An order on Tarabein’s pending motions — including his challenge to his 2023 sentencing terms and his request for a public defender — had not been filed as of Tuesday afternoon.