The body of a British surgeon who died in a Syrian prison last week is being flown back to the UK after being released to his family.

Abbas Khan, 32,  was found dead in his cell just days before the Syrian Government had said he would be freed.

He had spent months in custody, during which Dr Khan said he was tortured.

Dr Khan's family insist he was murdered - the Syrian authorities claim he took his own life.

Dr Khan was arrested in Syria 48 hours after arriving in the country last November to care for people injured in the conflict.

His body, which was taken to a morgue in Beirut by the International Red Cross, will be flown to London where the family have arranged for it to be taken to a coroner.

Another postmortem examination will be conducted in the UK to establish how he died.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said its Counter Terrorism Command was providing family liaison support and would "seek to assist the coroner when appropriate".

Dr Abbas, from Streatham, worked for the Epsom and St Helier University Hospital trust between August 2011 and January 2012 where he was a Research Fellow at the Elective Orthopaedic Centre (EOC) based at Epsom Hospital.