Syrian Opposition Figure Dies after 'Torture'

Veteran Syrian opposition figure Oday Rajab died on Monday of kidney failure following beatings he suffered in a government prison, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Rajab, 52, was arrested in April in the western city of Tartus at a military intelligence checkpoint.

"For eight days he was tortured and beaten," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that he was later moved to a hospital where he died on Monday of renal failure.

Rajab had been imprisoned for six years under the regime of Hafez Assad, the father of Syria's current President Bashar Assad, for membership of an outlawed communist party.