Pakistani Majid Khan, former member of al-Qaeda detained in Guantanamo, released

Guantanamo prison was opened in 2002 on US territory on the island of Cuba to detain members of Al-Qaeda and suspected accomplices to the September 11 attacks.

AFP/File

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Majid Khan is free.

Arrested twenty years ago, this Pakistani, former member of al-Qaeda, spent sixteen years in the American prison of Guantanamo.

In 2021, he had testified to the numerous tortures that members of the CIA had subjected to him. 

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“

,” said Majid Khan on Thursday February 2 in a press release.

This 42-year-old Pakistani has just been released and transferred to Belize, near Cuba, after spending 16 years in Guantanamo prison.

Attacks

Born in Saudi Arabia, he had emigrated to the United States at the age of 16;

members of his family belonging to al-Qaeda had then recruited him.

The United States arrested him in 2003, in 2012 he admitted having plotted attacks against gas stations and water tanks in the United States, attempted to assassinate a former Pakistani president and delivered the sum of 50,000 dollars used to finance an attack against a hotel in Jakarta which killed 11 people in 2003. In exchange for a reduced sentence, he agrees to testify against former al-Qaeda members.

Testimony

Majid Khan is also known for his testimony, in 2021, on the numerous sessions of torture that the CIA subjected him to: beatings, sexual assault, deprivation of food, simulation of drowning.

This release of Majid Khan who, according to the US Department of Defense, has "

", comes as a UN human rights expert is due to go to Guantanamo prison from Monday, February 6. , a first after twenty years of requests.

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• Pakistan

• al-Qaeda

• Terrorism

• Human rights

• UN

• UNITED STATES