Ex-Maryland man who joined al-Qaida sentenced to 26 years

FORT MEADE, MD. >> A military jury imposed a sentence of 26 years Friday on a former Maryland man who admitted joining alQaida and has been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. But under a plea deal, the man could be released as soon as next year because of his cooperation with U.S. authorities.

The sentencing of Majid Khan is the culmination of the first trial by military commission for one of the 14 so-called high-value detainees who were sent to the U.S. naval base in Cuba in 2006 after being held in a clandestine network of overseas CIA detention facilities and subjected to the harsh interrogation program developed in response to the 9/11 attacks.

Khan, a 41-year-old citizen of Pakistan who came to the U.S. in the 1990s and graduated from high school near Baltimore, earlier pleaded guilty to war crimes charges that included conspiracy and murder for his involvement in al-Qaida plots such as the deadly bombing of the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, in August 2003.

He apologized for his actions, which included planning al-Qaida attacks in the U.S. after 9/11 and a failed plot to kill former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. During a twohour statement to jurors on Thursday, he said: “I did it all, no excuse. And I am very sorry to everyone I have hurt.”

The jury of eight military officers was required to reach a sentence of 25 to 40 years. Jurors heard of Khan’s extensive cooperation with U.S. authorities following his guilty plea and heard the statement from the prisoner that also described his brutal CIA interrogation and captivity in the three years before he came to Guantanamo.

In addition to the sentence, the jury foreman said seven of the eight jurors had drafted a letter to Pentagon legal authorities recommending clemency for the defendant .

A pretrial agreement means he could be released as early as February, at which point he would be resettled in an as-yet to be determined third country. He cannot return to Pakistan.

Jurors were not told about the pretrial agreement, which requires a Pentagon legal official known as a convening authority to cut his sentence to no more than 11 years because of his cooperation.