British doctor held by Syrian government without charge

A British doctor imprisoned a year ago by the Syrian government has written directly to the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague describing his torture at the hands of prison guards.

The 32-year-old father-of-two worked as an orthopaedic surgeon and lived in Streatham, south London. He had travelled to Syria to use his medical training to help the worsening humanitarian crisis.

He vanished while working as an emergency surgeon in Aleppo and has since been held in a series of different military jails in Damascus, although no formal charges have been brought against him.

Newsnight's Jim Reed outlines the story and Gavin Esler speaks to Dr Abbas Khan's brother, Dr Shah Nawaz Khan.