WASHINGTON — A former Maryland man held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center has languished in custody months after his scheduled release despite cooperating with authorities as part of a plea deal, according to a federal suit that seeks his immediate release.
Majid Khan was due to be released March 1 after serving a 10-year-sentence and assisting authorities pursuing war crimes cases against others held at the U.S. base in Cuba, including the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
His lawyers say in a habeas corpus petition filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington that the government has taken no apparent steps toward his release. They say that will make other prisoners less likely to strike similar deals that would help the Biden administration reduce the number of men held there and move close to eventually shuttering the facility.
“The failure to transfer Majid Khan is undermining those efforts to negotiate plea agreements in the remaining cases,” attorney Wells Dixon said.
Khan is one of the most significant figures among the 37 men still held at the U.S. base in Cuba. His testimony about the torture he endured during more than three years in clandestine CIA detention facilities was the first public accounting of the treatment by a prisoner and prompted seven of eight military officers serving as jurors at his sentencing to endorse a letter seeking clemency for him.
That letter is also believed to…
