Aid worker Dr Abbas Khan was unlawfully killed by Bashar Al-Assad’s henchmen , an inquest jury has found.

Dr Khan, 32, was found hanging in his cell in December last year days before the Syrian administration claimed he would be freed.

The orthopaedic surgeon, who worked as a specialist registrar in orthopaedic surgery between September 10 and October 3, 2012, at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Brockley Hill, Stanmore , where one of his brothers, Shahnawaz Khan, is a research fellow, was on a humanitarian mission to Aleppo but entered Syria illegally. The Assad regime said he committed suicide.

His brother Afroze Khan said: “We have always maintained that he was tortured and murdered by the Syrians.”

William Hague, then Foreign Secretary, rejected the Syrian government’s explanation of suicide, saying the humanitarian was ‘effectively murdered’.

On Monday, October 27, a jury of four women and seven men returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

Dr Khan met his death in an ‘unknown prison or place of detention’ in Damascus, the court heard.

The female foreman said: “Dr Khan was deliberately and intentionally killed without any legal justification.”

Asked what the jury’s conclusion was as to the death, she said: “Unlawful killing.”

Chief Coroner Peter Thornton QC earlier said: “It is clear that he wanted to use his medical skills to help others, and that included helping others in conflict-torn Syria.

“There is no evidence that Dr Khan went to Syria to fight.”

Outside court, Afroze Khan said: “Twelve months we have waited for this verdict.

“As a family, we have always maintained that our brother was an innocent man who travelled to Syria for no other reason than helping injured civilians in the conflict.

“We have always maintained that tortured and tmurdered by the Syrians.

“Today, our position as a family has been vindicated completely. All the allegations against my brother - that he had gone for any other reason - have been disproved today.”

Dr Khan’s mother, Fatima, said her son was ‘angelic’.

She added: “There was no justice in Syria like we have British justice here - no court, no justice - otherwise my son would have been released.

“I couldn’t save my son. I trusted judges, lawyers and minister but everyone lied to me.

“They stabbed me in my back.”