Bail denied for Calgary doctor accused of abducting son, hiding overseas for 2 years

The Calgary father facing an abduction charge after taking his five-year-old son overseas for two years and cutting off contact with the boy’s mother and siblings has been denied bail.

At a hearing last week, Justice Peter Barley heard that Muhammad Rahman, 62, took his son to Turkey on Dec. 3, 2023. 

The psychiatrist was ultimately arrested in Mauritius in December 2025, thanks to an Interpol Red Alert. Police believe the father and son also spent time in Russia, Azerbaijan and Vanuatu.

On Monday, Barley said the Crown had met its onus on all three grounds for detention after hearing arguments from prosecutor Colin Schulhauser and defence lawyers Lakhwinder Sandhu and Himmat Shergill.

Barley noted that Rahman is a flight risk with connections to countries with which Canada does not have extradition treaties.

He also has money. In the months before he left Canada, Barley heard that Rahman transferred nearly $900,000 overseas. He also bought property in Turkey and was found with passports from four different countries. 

In denying bail, Barley noted that given his citizenship ties to four different countries — Canada, Turkey, Pakistan and Vanuatu — Rahman could “be gone before anyone was aware.”

“I do not think I could prevent Turkey or Pakistan from issuing a passport to the accused,” said the judge. 

There is also a risk, noted Barley, of Rahman trying to leave the country with his son again. Rahman knows where his four children live and where they go to school.

Last week, Schulhauser told the court that the boy, now seven years old, was “completely alienated” against his mother, making reunification “quite difficult.”

Before he left Canada, Rahman was working as a psychiatrist in Calgary.

During the investigation, police discovered a “final notice of reassessment” letter from Alberta Health to Rahman on his home computer. The document gave Rahman notice that he owed the government $1.6 million in overpayment for non-compliant claims.

According to the website for the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA), Rahman is listed as “not in current practice.” 

A CPSA disciplinary hearing appears to have been postponed indefinitely after the college alleged that Rahman “failed/refused to engage with CPSA's Professional Conduct department.”