Mother Insists He Was Murdered
The family of the late Dr. Abbas Khan made “superhuman” efforts to free him from the Syrian prison where he was detained.
The 32-year-old Doctor from Streatham, South London was found dead in his cell days before his release date. Whilst Syrian officials claim he committed suicide, the UK Foreign Office stated he was “in effect murdered”.
His mother, Fatima Khan, was “extraordinarily persistent” in trying to free her son. Speaking to a court, Fatima states she went to Syria in July 2013 and visited a number of embassies and prisons to trace her son.
Some of the vehicles she travelled in even came under fire but she was undeterred, “I felt scared, but my son was here so I had to be brave”. After finding him in a Court of Terrorism she said, “I hugged him. He was a skeleton. He was in tears. I said, ‘Look, mummy is here for you’. He said, ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have come here, please take me home’.”
The surgeon’s feet were said to be burned and he was missing a finger nail. When questioned by his mother over these injuries he replied, “This is nothing, I have suffered more than this.”
The conditions of the prison were “like hell” with mice, cockroaches and faeces on the floor. Khan claims he was beaten and interrogated by other inmates.
He was found “allegedly hanged” in his cell, his family insist he was murdered despite the suicide claims. Fatima Khan recalls a Syrian she spoke to after her son’s who told her, “Yes, we killed your son”.
An inquest is now being held in the Royal Courts of Justice lasting for three weeks.
The issues to be discussed will include: Did Dr Khan take his own life, 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?
