WASHINGTON — U.S. navy officers stated Thursday they launched and despatched to Belize a onetime al-Qaida courier who had accomplished his sentence. The switch of Majid Khan ended an imprisonment that included torture at clandestine CIA websites and 16 years on the Guantanamo Bay detention middle.
Khan, a Pakistani citizen who grew up outdoors Baltimore, wound up within the Central American nation beneath a Biden administration settlement with that authorities. Khan’s attorneys stated he ought to have been freed final February beneath a pretrial settlement.
Khan, who’s in his early 40s, stated in a press release via his authorized workforce that he deeply regretted his interval of working with al-Qaida in his early 20s. That included working as a courier and collaborating in planning a number of plots that had been by no means carried out.
“I promise all of you, particularly the individuals of Belize that I will probably be a productive, law-abiding member of society,” the assertion stated. “I cannot allow you to down.”
Earlier than arriving on the navy jail on the U.S. base in Cuba in 2006, Khan spent some three years at so-called CIA black websites abroad. The CIA used the clandestine areas in what the USA known as its “warfare on terror” after al-Qaida’s 2001 assaults in opposition to America on Sept. 11, 2001.
Khan’s remedy was detailed in a Senate Intelligence Committee report launched in 2014 that accused the CIA of abusing al-Qaida prisoners far past its authorized boundaries and of giving the general public false accounts of helpful interrogations on the websites.
His remedy included being suspended from a ceiling beam for lengthy intervals of time, doused with ice water to deprive him of sleep for days, and subjected to beatings, water torture, compelled enemas, sexual assault and hunger, Khan instructed a navy courtroom because it thought-about his sentence in a military-run warfare crimes trial.
Khan pled responsible earlier than a U.S. navy fee in 2012. He was sentenced in 2021 to 26 years, although a pretrial settlement required a Pentagon authorized official to chop that time period to not more than greater than 11 years due to his cooperation with U.S. authorities. Khan’s workforce stated he ought to have been launched final February as a part of that deal.
One in every of his attorneys, Katya Jestin, famous the U.S. had continued to carry Khan greater than a yr after he accomplished his sentence. “It is a historic victory for human rights and the rule of legislation, however one which took far too lengthy to achieve,” she stated in a press release.
The Protection Division thanked Belize and others working to switch Guantanamo prisoners deemed not a risk to freedom outdoors the USA. The Pentagon additionally stated the U.S. stays intent on finally closing Guantanamo.
At its peak in 2003, the jail held about 600 individuals whom the U.S. thought-about suspected terrorists. Supporters of utilizing the detention facility for such figures contend it prevented assaults. Guantanamo’s many critics say the system subverted human rights and constitutional rights and undermined the nation’s affect and ethical standing across the globe.
Thirty-four detainees stay at Guantanamo Bay, together with 20 eligible for switch if steady third-party nations may be discovered to take them, the Pentagon stated.
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