The mother of the British
doctor Abbas Khan who died in Syrian government custody last month did not only
confront the Syrian delegation in Geneva screaming: “Why did you kill my son?”
but she revealed the harrowing answers she purportedly received.
In one
YouTube video posted Thursday by a group called “Tahrir Souri” or “Syrian
Liberation,” the mother, Fatima Khan, said one “manager” named Jawdat Ali,
working for the Syrian foreign minister deputy, Faisal Makdad, told her “yes we
killed your son, because your upbringing is wrong.”
Her son was
days from being freed when the Syrian government announced on Dec. 17 he had
committed suicide. His family believes he was tortured and murdered by the
Syrian government.
In November
2012, Khan was arrested after arriving in Syria to work in a field hospital in
a rebel-controlled area.
While the
mother admits that her son entered Syria illegally, she said Syrian officials
told her that crossing the border into the Levant country without a proper visa
is a “killing offense.”
Mrs. Khan
also contacted Bouthaina Shaaban, the political and media adviser to Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad.
“I begged
her [Shaaban] one year and she didn’t help me,” she said .
The mother
says she still want to meet with Shaaban, but later called the media adviser a
“liar,” because “she denied to her own press that she met me.”
“That’s why
I am wearing the same clothes, she can’t avoid me…I handed [the British MP and
politician] George Galloway’s personal letter to her.”
In
Switzerland, the Syrian peace talks between President Bashar al-Assad’s
government and the opposition are taking place. Talks will wrap up on Friday
before they restart on Feb. 10.
When asked
if it is true that Shaaban’s office told her: “Yes, we killed your son,” the
mother confirmed.
“Yes, that’s
true, I have his phone number and whatsapp as well.”
She also
said that another five officials in the delegation told her that “coming to
Syria illegally is a killing offence.”
“The problem
[is] nobody asks for [a] visa, everybody goes there,” Mrs. Khan said.
She also
said that pro-Syrian regime in Switzerland have also worked provoke her.
In another
video, a reporter affiliated with the Syrian government asked: “why your son
didn’t go to Pakistan?”
“I am not
from Pakistan, I am from India. The war is in Syria and not in Pakistan, and a
lot of [Britons] are coming to help civilians.”
The Syrian
Liberation group provided Al Arabiya News Channel with a video of the interview
between the government-affiliated journalist and the mother.
In the
video, the mother had to explain to journalist that her son was killed in a Syrian prison in Damascus.
“He was
killed in prison of the regime,” the mother affirmed.
The
journalist asked: “He was killed in prison in Damascus? How did he come to
Damascus? How did he enter Damascus?”
The mother
turned away and said, “she doesn’t know the whole story.”
The
interview continued with the mother explaining how she had to bribe people in
prison to send her son “sweets.” Syrian TV did not air the interview.
An inquest
into the death of Abbas Khan will open at Walthamstow Coroner’s Court, UK on
Friday. By Al Arabiya
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