A US military tribunal has sentenced a former al Qaeda supporter to 26 years in prison. In court, he reports on the torture in Guantánamo.
Washington – In the trial of the 41-year-old Majid Khan, the first Guantánamo prisoner to be arrested after September 11, 2001 reported publicly about the methods of torture in the US military prison in Cuba. In his plea, the Pakistani native, who spent his youth in the United States and went to high school there, spoke of water torture, rape and beatings by CIA officials.
On Friday, Khan, who radicalized himself while visiting relatives in Pakistan in 2002 and subsequently supported the terrorist group Al Qaeda, was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Because of the 19 years in US detention and his cooperation with investigative authorities, Khan could be released in early 2022 and deported to a third country that has not yet been determined. The avowed former al Qaeda supporter is not allowed to return to either the USA or Pakistan. The Associated Press reports.
Guantánamo prisoner Khan: hung on chains, poured with ice water
Khan told the court how he was held in dark cells for days, partly hung on chains, with no food or clothing, while loud music played and guards poured ice water over him. In dark CIA camps in unknown countries, he was put with a hood in a bathtub filled with ice water and held with his head under water. Khan’s testimony about torture is supported by a US Senate investigation into the use of torture by the CIA following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In order to avoid further torture, Khan reported that in the days after his arrest on March 5, 2003 in Karachi, he had provided the CIA with a great deal of information about al Qaeda and admitted that he was working with the terrorist network: “Whenever I was tortured , I told them what I thought they wanted to hear. I just lied to stop the abuse, ”he said in the 39-page statement that was subsequently posted on the Internet by his lawyers. However, the torture got worse afterwards.
After detention in Guantánamo: Tortured prisoner could be released after 19 years
As a young man, the 41-year-old was involved in the planning of the bomb attack on a hotel in Jakarta, in which twelve people died and well over a hundred others were injured. He told the court that he had been tortured again from 2006 while he was in detention in Guantánamo. He was repeatedly exposed to bright light or total darkness over a long period of time, and CIA medics force-fed and raped him when he tried to go on a hunger strike.
Due to an agreement with the authorities, the Guantánamo prisoner could be released from custody as early as next year. In court he stressed that he had no grudge against his kidnappers: “I forgive those who tortured me – all of you,” he told the court. US President Joe Biden’s goal is to close the controversial prison camp in Guantánamo until the end of his term in office. (ska / AFP)
