By Joe Tidy, Sky News Reporter
The mother of a British doctor who died while in a jail in Syria has told an inquest how she was shot at, had bombs land near her and was threatened with arrest while she travelled in the war-torn country trying to get her son freed.
Fatima Khan was visibly distressed as her evidence was read out to jurors.
She said she travelled to Damascus alone without help from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when she found out her son, Dr Abbas Khan, was being detained on terror charges.
She went from embassy to embassy and prison to prison with a picture of her son who was working as a humanitarian surgeon when he was arrested in November 2012.
At the start of the inquest, which is set to last around three weeks, at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, chief coroner Judge Peter Thornton told jurors that the medic's mother had been "extraordinarily persistent".
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Gallery: Timeline: Dr Abbas Khan
Abbas Khan was from Streatham, south London, and worked as an orthopaedic surgeon
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The surgeon arrived in Turkey on November 12, 2012. He initially worked alongside the UK-based charity Human Aid. Dr Khan's brother said he 'passionately believed in helping those in their hour of need'
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The 32-year-old, who had two children, specialised in hand and nerve trauma
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He worked for Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, from which he took a six-month sabbatical in 2012
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Dr Khan then travelled to Turkey to help injured refugees crossing the Syrian border
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At his funeral, his brother Shahnawaz Khan remembered his brother as 'a star'
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The doctor's mother was heard saying 'please give me my son back'
"I felt scared, but my son was here so I had to be brave," Fatima Khan said.
She would kiss the shoes of the officials she met and beg them to help her.
Dr Khan, a father of two from London, died while being held in custody by Syrian government officials last December.
He was captured in the city of Aleppo after travelling from Turkey to help victims of hospital bombings.
His family claim he was murdered while being held. The Syrian government has always maintained Dr Khan killed himself and that he was found hanging in a prison cell.
His mother also told the court about the first time she saw him in prison.
She described the conditions as squalid and said he "looked like a skeleton" and had "burn marks on his body and a fingernail missing".
She said he was beaten by inmates for being Indian and by guards for being British.
Through her family's campaigning she was able to get him transferred to a better prison where he regained his health.
He did regain his health, but died on 16 December 2013 - days before he was to be released.
The coroner told jurors they would have to come to a conclusion on the circumstances of Dr Khan's death, bearing in mind the key issues: did Dr Khan take his own life, was he forced to take his own life by his captors, or was he killed by them deliberately and unlawfully.
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