World Bulletin/News Desk

A British surgeon who died in a Syrian prison last year after travelling to work in Aleppo was unlawfully killed, a London jury ruled on Monday.

Abbas Khan, a 32-year-old orthopaedic surgeon from London, was detained in Syria almost two years ago and found dead in a prison cell last December.

Shortly after his death, his family said he had been arrested within 48 hours of arriving in Syria to volunteer as an emergency doctor.

Khan's family had not believed the official explanation for the death given by the Syrian authorities - that he had committed suicide by hanging days before his scheduled release - and his body was brought back to Britain.

A spokesman for the Royal Courts of Justice said the jury had returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

"Dr Khan was deliberately and intentionally killed without any legal justification," the BBC quoted the jury's forewoman as saying. The jury had previously heard that Khan had gone to offer his medical skills and was not in the country to fight.