‘Superhuman’ effort to secure Abbas Khan’s freedom

THE family of a British doctor found dead in a prison in Syria made “superhuman” efforts to secure his freedom, an inquest into his death has heard.

British doctor Abbas Khan was found dead in a Syrian jail cell. Picture: Contributed

At the start of the hearing, set to last around three weeks at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, chief coroner Peter Thornton said the mother of orthopaedic surgeon Abbas Khan had been “extraordinarily persistent”. Dr Khan, a father of two from London, died while being held in custody by Syrian government officials last December.

He was captured in Aleppo in November 2012 after travelling from Turkey to help victims of hospital bombings. His family claim he was murdered while being held.

The Syrian government has always maintained Dr Khan killed himself and that he was found hanging in a jail cell. The coroner said that “respected family man” Dr Khan, 32, was found “allegedly hanged” while in custody in Damascus.

Mr Thornton added: “It is clear that he wanted to use his medical skills to help others, and that included helping others in conflict-torn Syria.”

The coroner said “things went wrong” on 22 November, 2012, when Dr Khan, who was working in a hospital, went out for a walk. He was detained and “was never a free man again”.

Just over a year later, he was found dead, and “during that period of a year while in custody his family made superhuman efforts to try to get him released”, the coroner said.

Mr Thornton added that the main issues for the jury to consider were likely to be, did Dr Khan take his own life, or was he “forced in some way by his captors to take his own life against his will”, or was he “unlawfully killed” by his captors.

The surgeon’s mother, Fatima Khan, told the jury that in July last year she went to Syria to try to rescue her son and visited a number of embassies, ministries and prisons in an attempt to find out where he was.

Some of the buildings she went to were shaken by bomb blasts, and vans she travelled in came under sniper fire.