Photo: Majid Shoukat Khan
by Marco Lopez
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Feb 2. 2023
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee and Al-Qaeda member turned US government informant, Majid Shoukat Khan, 42, has been transferred to Belize for relocation. Khan has been in US custody for at least 20 years, before finally being released last year March. Khan disclosed that while detained he had been subject to years of torture by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In a detailed account over two hours, Khan recollected the years of torture – stating that the more he told the officers, the more he would be abused.
Seven of eight jurors who heard Khan’s case for clemency wrote letters on his behalf, and for almost a year the US government has been looking for a new country for him to call home. While Khan, a US-educated Pakistani national, has relatives in Baltimore, Maryland, the US prohibits the release of Guantanamo prisoners on their soil. By August 2022 they had asked 11 countries if they were willing to resettle the former retired Al-Qaeda operative. Today, the Government of Belize announced that they have decided to give Khan a home here, as a “humanitarian act.”
Khan is the first prisoner from Guantanamo Bay said to be a “high-value detainee”, to be released. The term is used by the CIA to identify those former prisoners who were subjected to the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation” program.
Belize was asked to settle three persons, but only Mr. Khan was seen as eligible after an evaluation carried out by various bodies, Foreign Minister Courtenay said. Settlement of former Guantanamo detainees has been arranged in Bermuda, El Salvador, and Uruguay within the region, while others have been sent to Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.
Khan went to high school in Maryland before leaving for Pakistan after the 9/11 attack. In 2012 he agreed to testify against other prisoners and admitted to planning a suicide bombing and delivering $50,000 from an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Southeast Asia to Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed, one of the accused masterminds of the 9/11 attack. These funds were used for the bombing of a Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, in August 2003. He admitted to crafting a number of other crimes with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. One plot notably was a failed suicide bombing plot to assassinate the president of Pakistan in 2002.
Khan was held incommunicado for 3 years in CIA dungeons overseas, and he testified that he was subject to beatings, forced-feeding, waterboarding, and physical and sexual abuse. During a Senate Investigation in 2014, Khan disclosed that his captors “infused” a puree of pasta, sauce, nuts, raisins, and hummus into his rectum, an assault which has been classified as rape by Khan’s attorneys.
“Mr. Khan was subjected to physical and psychological abuse well beyond approved enhanced interrogation techniques, instead being closer to torture performed by the most abusive regimes in modern history,” a letter written by the jurors and obtained by the New York Times recounted. The revelations were described as a “stain on the moral fiber of America.”
Belize, the nearest nation to Guantanamo to have received a prisoner, will be Khan’s new home. He arrived in the country today and has been provided with a house, car, laptop, and cell phone, all courtesy of the US government. He hopes to turn over a new leaf in his new country, and today, in a press conference, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. Eamon Courtenay, vouched for him.
“In the assessment of the United States Government and the Government of Belize, Mr. Khan is not a terrorist and does not pose a threat … This man is seeing freedom for the first time in 20 years. He wants a time, an opportunity to decompress, and the understanding that he can go to the supermarket, a neighborhood shop, anywhere,” Hon. Courtenay said.
“The house is in a neighborhood in this country,” Hon. Courtenay said. “He will have neighbors, and I do [not] expect that he will be any type of person who would be described as a bad neighbor. All the funds of the resettlement are being borne by the United States government.”
Khan will have to sign into the Police Department in his jurisdiction and will not be allowed to travel for some time. His wife and daughter will live with him in his new home in Belize. He currently has a special permit that allows him to remain in Belize legally and work.
“Permanent residence comes after 5 years. That permit is essentially for three years in the first instance, for some reasons I won’t get into, but we have given our assurance that it will be extended after that to give him the certainty he needs to know that he can stay here for the rest of his life. Yes, assuming he abides by the law and satisfies the criteria for permanent residents and applies for it, I see no reason why he would not be granted permanent residence. It is critically important for him, because of the vulnerability that he has experienced for the 20 years, to give him certainty and comfort that he is here lawfully and he need not worry,” Hon. Courtenay said.