Mother’s tears for murdered doctor
CONSrMED with grief, catima hhan broke down as the body of her son Abbas was carried away after his funeral yesterday.
The British doctor, murdered in a Syrian jail after going to give humanitarian aid, was laid to rest as more than 1,000 mourners filled oegent’s mark Mosque in iondon.
Afterwards Mrs hhan collapsed in tears as the coffin was led out.
As people tried to comfort her she criedW ‘Nobody help me, I love my son. I am the loser. I’m the failure.’
She saidW ‘I beg everybody. mlease give me my son.’
Mrs hhan fearlessly confronted the Syrian regime to locate and then visit her son after his arrest f or treating dying civilians in November 2012.
Dr hhan, 32, was days from being freed when his family were told of his death in jail on December 17. Syria’s government claims the father- of- two from Streatham, South iondon, took his own life, but the coreign Office and his family say he was murdered.
The orthopaedic surgeon leaves wife Hanna, 30, daughter ourayya, seven, and son Abdullah, six. His brother Shahnawaz paid a moving tribute, sayingW ‘I was inspired in the words of his daughter who said “you are my star”. ‘My brother was our star.’ He said that Dr hhan was the ‘kindest and simplest man I’ve ever met’, addingW ‘I modelled my life on him.’
Dr Mohammad Al Hadji Ali, of the Syrian British Medical Society, said he ‘gave his life as a sacrifice’.