British Prime Minister David Cameron has written to the family of an Indian-origin British doctor who died in a Syrian jail, saying Damascus must "answer for" his "sickening" death, a source said today.
Syria claims Abbas Khan, who was arrested last year after travelling to Aleppo to treat wounded civilians, committed suicide. But a British minister said this week that he was "in effect murdered" by the regime.
A British government source confirmed that Cameron had written to Khan's family.
It is understood that he wrote: "Abbas's death is a sickening and appalling tragedy and it is right that the Syrian regime should answer for it."
Relatives of the doctor, a father of two children, have dismissed Syria's claim that he took his own life just days before he was due to be freed and handed over to a British lawmaker.
The body of the 32-year-old orthopaedic surgeon was flown back to London from Beirut today. An autopsy will be conducted to determine how he died.
The family's lawyer, Nabeel Sheikh, said relatives were "relieved that his body has been repatriated" and that the body was being transferred to a coroner's court in east London, where tests would be carried out.
Sheikh told AFP that pathologists would be looking for signs of torture on the body.
