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Britain Warns Syria After Report of Imprisoned Doctor’s Death
(about 7 hours later)
LONDON — The British Foreign Office said Tuesday that it was “extremely concerned” about reports that a British doctor had died in detention in Syria and that it would hold the government of President Bashar al-Assad responsible if the accounts proved true.
LONDON — Britain warned Syria on Tuesday that it would hold the government of President Bashar al-Assad responsible if a British surgeon incarcerated for more than a year for treating civilians in the Syrian civil war had died mysteriously in prison, as his family asserted.
News of the death of Abbas Khan, a 32-year-old surgeon, emerged four days before he had been expected to fly home, according to his family and a British lawmaker, who said the physician’s release had been approved by Syrian leaders, including Mr. Assad.
The death of the surgeon, Dr. Abbas Khan, 32, was reported by relatives four days before he had been expected to fly home. They said Syrian leaders, including Mr. Assad, had approved his release.
Mr. Khan had been imprisoned for more than a year after traveling to the northern city of Aleppo to help treat civilians in November 2012, according to his family.
Dr. Khan’s family said he had been imprisoned after traveling to the contested northern city of Aleppo to help care for civilians wounded from civil-war fighting in November 2012.
His brother, Afroze Khan, 34, said the Syrian security agency had promised that he would be freed this week, but when his mother went to visit him on Monday, she was told that he had died.
His brother, Afroze Khan, 34, said the Syrian security agency had promised that Dr. Khan would be freed this week, but that when his mother went to visit him on Monday, she was told that he had died. “My brother was going to be released at the end of the week,” Mr. Khan told the BBC. “My brother knew that. He was ready to come back home. He was happy and looking forward to being released.”
“My brother was going to be released at the end of the week,” Afroze Khan told the BBC. “My brother knew that. He was ready to come back home. He was happy and looking forward to being released.”
George Galloway, a maverick British lawmaker who had been acting as an intermediary for the family to bring Dr. Khan home, said Syrian authorities had informed him that Dr. Khan was found hanging by his pajama bottoms on Monday in his cell. Mr. Galloway, who had been planning to travel to Damascus, Syria’s capital, to escort the surgeon back to Britain, described the death as a tragedy and said, “I think we will have to wait for clarification on how exactly he died.”
A spokesman for George Galloway, a maverick lawmaker and the only member of the small Respect party in Parliament, said Syrian officials had told him that prison wardens who had taken breakfast to Dr. Khan on Monday had returned to check on him two hours later and found him hanging by his pajama bottoms from a hook in his cell.
The response was blunt from the British government, which supports the opposition seeking to topple Mr. Assad. Hugh Robertson, a minister in the Foreign Office, told the BBC that the surgeon’s death as described by his family would be extremely suspicious and “in effect” a murder. In an earlier statement, the Foreign Office said that if the surgeon had died in the custody of Syrian authorities, “responsibility for Dr. Khan’s death lies with them, and we will be pressing for answers about what happened.”
Hugh Robertson, a minister in the Foreign Office, told the BBC that the circumstances of his death were extremely suspicious and that a British national had “in effect” been murdered in Syria.
According to the BBC, the physician had been held at the headquarters of Syria’s national security agency, and his mother, Fatima Khan, had secured a promise of his release after having spent four months in Damascus.
In an earlier statement, the Foreign Office said it was “urgently seeking clarification of this 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,” the statement said. “We have consistently sought consular access to Dr. Khan and information on his detention, directly and through the Russians, Czechs and others.”
Requests for information about his welfare, treatment and the reasons for his detention had “consistently been ignored,” the statement said.
Britain’s consular services in Syria were suspended as the civil war widened and the British government became one of the strongest European supporters of the rebels seeking to overthrow Mr. Assad’s government.
According to the BBC, the physician had been held at the headquarters of Syria’s national security agency, and his mother, Fatima Khan, had finally secured a promise of his release after spending four months in Damascus, the Syrian capital. But when she went to visit her son on Monday, she was told he was dead.
When his mother saw him in prison on an earlier occasion, the family said, he weighed around 70 pounds, could hardly walk and said he had been tortured.
When his mother saw him in prison on an earlier occasion, the family said, he weighed around 70 pounds, could hardly walk and said he had been tortured.
Mr. Galloway said he had been acting as an intermediary with the Syrian authorities to bring Dr. Khan home and had been planning to fly to Damascus on Friday to collect him.
News of Dr. Khan’s death came as rights activists expressed new alarm over what they said were repeated Syrian military helicopter airstrikes in Aleppo, first reported on Sunday, in which crews dropped barrels filled with explosives and shrapnel onto rebel-held neighborhoods. Doctors Without Borders, the medical relief organization, added its concern on Tuesday, asserting in a statement that “despite inflicting widespread injuries and damage in civilian-populated areas, the indiscriminate and sustained attacks continued today.”
“I think we will have to wait for clarification on how exactly he died,” Mr. Galloway said, “but this is heartbreaking and devastating news for his family, who have been working so hard for so long to secure his release.”
The statement said more than 100 people had been killed and that “the influx of injured people has overwhelmed the remaining functioning hospitals in Aleppo, leaving them with little to no resources.”
“I have been in contact with the Syrian government many times, up to and including the president, the foreign minister, the justice minister and other ministers,” he said in a statement. “Last week I received a call from the foreign minister telling me that the president had asked him to contact me to come to Damascus to bring Dr. Khan home before Christmas.”
Syria’s official news agency, SANA, said nothing about such attacks in its account of fighting in Aleppo on Tuesday, asserting instead that at least seven civilians had been killed by rocket shells and mortar rounds fired by terrorists, the government’s generic term for armed insurgents.
News of Dr. Khan’s death in prison came as rights activists expressed new alarm over what they said were government helicopter airstrikes in the contested northern city of Aleppo, first reported on Sunday, in which crews dumped barrels filled with explosives and shrapnel onto rebel-held neighborhoods. Doctors Without Borders, the medical relief organization, added its voice to the concern on Tuesday, asserting in a statement that “despite inflicting widespread injuries and damage in civilian populated areas, the indiscriminate and sustained attacks continued today.”
The civil war, now in its third winter, has been particularly perilous for health professionals. In September, the United Nations reported that hospitals, medical personnel and transportation vehicles had been targeted, calling it “one of the most alarming features of the Syrian conflict.” By some estimates, more than 100 doctors have been killed and up to 600 have been jailed.
The statement said more than 100 people had been killed and that “the influx of injured people has overwhelmed the remaining functioning hospitals in Aleppo, leaving them with little-to-no resources.”
Dr. Khan went to Syria as its health system was collapsing. In London, he had worked at the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital, a leading medical institution. British news reports said he had traveled without a visa.
Syria’s official news agency, SANA, said nothing about such attacks in its account of fighting in Aleppo on Tuesday, asserting instead that at least seven civilians had been killed by rocket shells and mortar rounds fired by terrorists, the government’s catchall term for armed insurgents.
The Syrian authorities have been profoundly suspicious of foreigners, including several hundred Britons, who have traveled clandestinely to Syria to fight with jihadist groups against Mr. Assad’s forces. Dr. Khan’s family has denied that he had rebel sympathies.
The civil war in Syria, now in its third winter, has been particularly perilous for health professionals. In September, the United Nations reported that hospitals, medical personnel and transportation vehicles had been deliberately targeted, calling it “one of the most alarming features of the Syrian conflict.” By some estimates, more than 100 doctors have been killed and up to 600 have been jailed.
In neighboring Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley on Tuesday, a car bomb was detonated at a military post of Hezbollah, the Shiite militia that has aligned itself with Mr. Assad and has sent fighters into Syria to battle the rebels. A Lebanese law enforcement official said the car had contained more than 100 pounds of explosives, and Lebanon’s National News Agency said there had been an unspecified number of casualties.
Dr. Khan went to Syria as its health system crumbled, with many hospitals badly damaged and more than a third of them out of action altogether, according to the World Health Organization. In London, he had worked at the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital, one of the capital’s leading medical institutions. British news reports said he had traveled without a visa.
Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria has heightened political and sectarian tensions in Lebanon, where the population is sharply divided between supporters and opponents of the Syrian government.
Syrian authorities have been profoundly suspicious of foreigners, including several hundred Britons, who have traveled clandestinely to Syria to fight with jihadist groups against Mr. Assad’s forces. Dr. Khan’s family has denied that he had sympathies with rebel forces.
Reporting
was contributed by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura from London; Anne Barnard and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon; and Rick Gladstone from New York.
Syria’s security agency has long had a reputation for brutality, according to human rights groups. Amnesty International has said more than 1,000 people have died in security police detention since the revolt against Mr. Assad began in March 2011.
“We know all too well that the torture of detainees is widespread and committed with impunity by the Syrian authorities,” said Kristyan Benedict, an Amnesty International representative here, “with detainees often crowded into vermin-infested cells, denied urgently needed medical treatment and even abused by medical staff.”
Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura contributed reporting from London, and Rick Gladstone from New York.
