British doctor who died in Syria worked in Stanmore Hospital

A British doctor said to have died in a Syrian jail days before he was due to come home had worked at a Stanmore hospital where his brother is employed.

Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Abbas Khan was arrested by the Syrian army in November 2012, at a checkpoint in Syria.

He is presumed to have crossed into the war-torn country from neighbouring Turkey, where he had been providing trauma kit training to medical professionals on behalf of the Human Aid charity.

The month before his capture, the father-of-two was employed as specialist registrar in orthopaedic surgery at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), a specialist musculoskeletal hospital in Brockley Hill, Stanmore.

He worked at the hospital, where his brother Shahnawaz Khan is a research fellow, between September 10 and October 3.

Dr Khan was due to be released from prison on Friday last week, into the company of George Galloway, the Respect Party MP for Bradford West, who had been acting as a negotiating intermediary.

However, the family of the 32-year-old from Streatham, south London, including brother Shahnawaz, said they had been informed by the Syrian authorities – much to their disbelief – that he had committed suicide in military detention on Monday.

In a statement, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Trust said: “The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital is very saddened to hear of the death of Dr Abbas Khan.

“On behalf of the RNOH, we would like to extend our deepest sympathies to Dr Khan’s family at this very difficult time.”

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office 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.

“We have consistently sought consular access to Dr Khan and information on his detention, directly and through the Russians, Czechs and others.

“In November, Foreign Officer Minister Hugh Robertson wrote making clear our concerns about his welfare and treatment, stressing that the regime’s failure to provide any information that would indicate Dr Khan’s continued detention is legitimate meant his position should be reviewed immediately. These requests have consistently been ignored.”