Syrian opposition figure dies after `torture`: Monitor

Beirut: 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 al-Assad, the father of Syria`s current President Bashar al-Assad, for membership of an outlawed communist party.