A BRITISH SURGEON imprisoned in war-torn Syria for over a year after volunteering to work in a hospital has died in detention, his family and a lawmaker said today.
Abbas Khan, a 32-year-old orthopaedic surgeon from south London, went to the northern city of Aleppo last year to help treat civilians.
Britain’s Foreign Office said it was “extremely concerned” by reports of his death and was seeking confirmation from the Syrian government, which it said it would hold responsible if he was dead.
Khan’s brother Afroze told the BBC that Syrian authorities had promised to release him this week, but on Monday they told the family he had died. Khan, 34, said:
My brother was going to be released at the end of the week. We were given assurance by the Syrian government. My brother knew that. He was ready to come back home. He was happy and looking forward to being released.
The family added that it had no information on how he died.
British lawmaker George Galloway said he had been due to fly out to Syria within days to bring the doctor home. In a statement, he said:
I think we will have to wait for clarification on how exactly he died but this is heartbreaking and devastating news for his family who have been working so hard for so long to secure his release.
Galloway has been a vocal critic of the western policy on supporting Syrian rebels, having bitterly opposed the Iraq war in 2003, and has maintained contacts with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. He said:
Last week I received a call from the (Syrian) foreign minister telling me that the president had asked him to contact me to come to Damascus to bring Dr Khan home before Christmas, obviously this had to be kept confidential but the family were kept fully informed. I was in the process of booking a flight for this Friday when I got the appalling news.
Afroze Khan accused the Foreign Office of failing to take action:
We are devastated, distraught and we are angry at the Foreign Office for dragging their feet for 13 months.
The Foreign Office said it had sought consular access to Khan on several occasions, but all its requests had been ignored. In a statement it said:
We are extremely concerned by reports that Dr Khan has died in detention in Syria and are urgently seeking confirmation from the Syrian authorities. If these tragic reports are true, responsibility for Dr Khan’s death lies with them and we will be pressing for answers about what happened.
It added: “We have consistently sought consular access to Dr Khan and information on his detention, directly and through the Russians, Czechs and others.”
A junior foreign minister, Hugh Robertson, wrote to the Syrian authorities in November expressing Britain’s concerns about Khan’s welfare and treatment and urged them to review his position.
Rights group Amnesty International said Khan’s death was “yet another deeply troubling death in custody in Syria:
The UK government should denounce Dr Khan’s death in the strongest possible terms and ensure that, no matter how long it takes, whoever is responsible is brought to justice.
The death should also push Britain to urge the UN Security Council to refer the Syria situation to the International Criminal Court, it added.
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