Majid Khan (detainee)

For the Pakistani cricketer, see Majid Khan (cricketer).

Majid Khan
BornMajid Shoukat Khan
(1980-02-28) February 28, 1980 (age 44)[1]
Saudi Arabia[2]
ArrestedMarch 5, 2003
Karachi, Pakistan
ReleasedFebruary 2, 2023
Belize
CitizenshipPakistan
Detained at Pakistan, CIA black sites, Guantanamo
ISN10020
Charge(s)Five war crimes, including murder, attempted murder and spying
StatusPleaded guilty[3][4][5]

Majid Shoukat Khan (Urdu: ماجد شوکت خان, born February 28, 1980) is a Pakistani who was the only known legal resident of the United States held in the Guantanamo Bay Detainment Camp. He was a "high value detainee" and was tortured by U.S. intelligence forces.[6]

Khan originally came to the United States in 1998, where he gained asylum. He lived in a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland where he attended high school and became radicalized.[6] He returned to his native Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks to join Al Qaeda and worked for them as a courier, according to the BBC,[7] The Progressive,[8] and the New York Times.[6] Pakistani authorities captured him in 2003 and handed him over to the CIA who held him incognito in a black site in Afghanistan, interrogating him and subjecting him to “the most horrific torture.”[6] In 2006 he was sent to Guantanamo, where in 2012 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and the murder of 11 innocent civilians in the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia, and also for the attempted assassination of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.[9] He also began cooperating with the U.S. government.[6] In 2021 he was sentenced by Guantanamo Military Commission retroactively to 26 years in prison. His sentence was completed on March 1, 2022, and after Belize agreed to accept him he was released from Guantanamo Bay to that country on February 2, 2023.[10]

  1. ^ "JTF- GTMO Detainee Assessment" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. June 13, 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 29, 2022. Retrieved February 5, 2023 – via New York Times.
  2. ^ Rosenberg, Carol (October 29, 2021). "For First Time in Public, a Detainee Describes Torture at C.I.A. Black Sites". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 29, 2021. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  3. ^ Finn, Peter (March 1, 2012). "National Security". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  4. ^ "Guantanamo detainee Majid Khan pleads guilty; details of government crimes against him remain classified top secret". Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  5. ^ "5 Things You Need to Know: The CIA's Horrific Torture of Majid Khan". June 5, 2015. Archived from the original on June 8, 2015. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d e Carol Rosenberg (February 9, 2023). "Freed Former C.I.A. Prisoner Has Big Dreams for a New Life in Belize". The New York Times. New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  7. ^ Madeline Halpert (February 2, 2023). "US resettles Guantanamo Bay detainee Majid Khan in Belize". BBC. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  8. ^ ROSEN, DAVID (February 16, 2023). "Lessons from Majid Khan's Release from Guantánamo". The Progressive. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  9. ^ "Stipulation of Fact" (PDF). U.S. Office of Military Commissions. February 13, 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 9, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  10. ^ Rosenberg, Carol (February 2, 2023). "Tortured Guantánamo Detainee Is Freed in Belize". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023. Retrieved February 2, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.