Bradford West MP George Galloway has told an inquest into the death of Dr Abbas Khan in a Syrian prison of his belief that the surgeon was murdered.

Dr Khan, a 32-year-old father-of-two from London, died on December 16, 2013 while in custody in Damascus.

His family claim he was murdered, but the Syrian government has always maintained that he killed himself and was found hanging in a jail cell.

The Respect MP was first contacted by Dr Khan's family in January 2013, two months after he was captured in Aleppo after travelling from Turkey to help victims of hospital bombings.

Mr Galloway said he began lobbying quite hard behind the scenes with the Syrians for Dr Khan's release

"I reached a high level and I achieved promises which - if they had been kept - we wouldn't be here today," he told chief coroner Judge Peter Thornton and a jury of seven men and four women at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Mr Galloway said he had sent a formal appeal for clemency directly to the president and was given an assurance in January from an interlocutor in Beirut, which he believed and trusted, that Dr Khan would be released to him in due course after the process of a court case.

Mr Galloway said it seemed "absurd" that someone who was joyous about being imminently released and reunited with his small children would commit suicide.