Syria: Family Of Dead UK Doctor Want Answers

By Joe Tidy, Sky News Reporter

The family of a British doctor who died while in custody in Syria are meeting Foreign Office representatives to demand answers on how he died.

Dr Abbas Khan, 32, had been imprisoned for more than a year after travelling to Aleppo to treat injured civilians.

He was about to be released when the Syrian regime announced he was dead. It claims he killed himself.

He leaves behind a wife and two children who were preparing to have him home for Christmas.

Speaking to Sky News, Dr Shahnawaz Khan said the family was desperately trying to get  Dr Khan's body repatriated so that a post-mortem examination can be carried out.

Dr Khan's brother says the family now wants his body back home

Dr Khan explained why his family was critical of the Foreign Office for what he saw as its failure to take action.

He said: "We as a family, having found a situation where he was in detention, managed to lobby high-up members in the Syrian government ... we then managed to come home and lobby members of our own Government - without any support whatsoever from the Foreign Office - to give us assistance in travelling to Damascus, meet with President Assad and bring my brother home.

"The Foreign Office put up a 'closed shop' placard, placated us throughout and, to an extent, their lack of action - or inaction - over the past 13 months has contributed to the outcome that we're unfortunately faced with.

"The least the Foreign Office can do now is help us get his body back to England as quickly as possible, with as little pain as possible."

Dr Khan went to Syria to help the injured

Foreign Office minister Hugh Robertson said: "There is no excuse whatsoever for the treatment that he has suffered by the Syrian authorities who have in effect murdered a British national who was in their country to help people injured during their civil war."

A spokesman for David Cameron said: "We have raised this case with the Syrian regime. The central point in this is that the responsibility for the death lies with the Syrian regime. This is further evidence of the brutality of the Syrian regime." 

Professor Tim Briggs, a senior surgeon at The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, London, who trained Mr Khan as an orthopaedic surgeon before he left for Syria, said: "He was very pleasant, hard working, and always wanted to do his best for patients.

Mr Khan worked in Stanmore until shortly before he went to Syria

"There is no doubt that he was committed to a career in orthopaedics. The reason he went out to the Middle East was to help others. As far as I know he wasn't involved in politics.

"We are all devastated. That a young doctor can be treated like this and that he was put in prison is a travesty."

Syrian authorities said Mr Khan had been detained for "unauthorised activities", the official Sana news agency said, adding that he had hanged himself.

"British citizen Abbas Khan entered Syrian territory illegally and undertook unauthorised activities... the cause of death being asphyxia caused by hanging," a statement said.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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