A military jury sentenced a terrorist for 26 years, but others wrote a request for clemency.
According to the letter, Majid Khan's torture was "a stain on America's moral fiber."
Khan claimed that he was force-fed, waterboarded, and subject to physical and sexual abuse.
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The New York Times reported that a military jury condemned torture tactics used against a terrorist conviction after he was sentenced to 26 years imprisonment.
The jury was composed of senior military officers on active duty and heard graphic accounts of Majid Khan's torture while held at CIA black sites. Khan, a Baltimore high school graduate, was a courier for Al-Qaeda until he was captured.
The jury that had brought him to Guantanamo Bay, where he was detained, heard his testimony to decide his sentence. He was the first to describe the torture he endured at a black location.
Khan claimed that he was subject to force-feeding, waterboarding and other forms of abuse. Khan claimed that he was kept in isolation while nude, tied up in the dark and almost drowned.
Khan was sentenced to 26 years by the jury on Friday. The jury was supposed to give a sentence between 25 and 40 years. The Associated Press reported that seven of the eight military jurors wrote a letter asking the Pentagon to grant Khan clemency.
The Times published the two-page handwritten letter, which was obtained by them on Sunday.
The letter stated that Khan had been subjected to psychological and physical abuses well beyond the approved enhanced interrogation techniques. Instead, Khan was closer to torture by the most abusive regimes of modern history.
It continued, "This abuse was not of any practical value in terms intelligence or any other tangible benefit for US interests." It is a stain to America's moral fiber; Mr. Khan should be treated with shame by the US government.
The letter requested clemency and also mentioned that Khan was held without trial or charge for almost a decade. This is common for terrorists who are deemed "alien unprivileged enemies belligerents." The letter stated that the practice was a "complete disregard of the foundational concepts on which the Constitution was built" and an "affront American values and the concept of Justice."
Khan was among the 14 high-value detainees who were sent to Guantanamo following interrogations at CIA black spots that had been established around the globe during the war on terror.
Guantanamo Bay still holds 39 prisoners, despite President Joe Biden's wishes to close the prison. Some of them are still awaiting trial under Khan's military commission system. Others are not charged but are too dangerous to be released.
The US has cleared a third group for release, but they are still waiting to place them in another country that can allow them to be released under certain security conditions.
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