Tortured Guantanamo detainee Majid Khan transferred to Belize

Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The United States has transferred Guantanamo Bay detainee Majid Khan to Belize, the Department of Defense announced Thursday.

Khan was accused by his captors of being involved in a plot to assassinate former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, and of acting as a courier for funds used in the 2003 JW Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia.

"Majid Khan pled guilty before a Military Commission in February 2012. Pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, Khan pledged to cooperate with the U.S. Government and honored his cooperation commitment," reads a press release from the Department of Defense.

Khan, a native of Saudi Arabia, was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and transferred to the CIA, who held him at secret facilities before transferring him to Guantanamo. During his time in detention he was repeatedly tortured by his captors, who beat him and subjected him to waterboarding.

Military prosecutors in the military trial of Riduan "Hambali" Isomuddin, who is accused of directing the 2002 bombing of a nightclub in Bali, and the 2003 attack against the JW Marriott, said Khan acted as a courier for the alleged terrorist.

The military commissions at Guantanamo Bay do not allow detainees to defend themselves in the same way as people accused in civilian courts. Though a United States court ruled in 2020 that detainees were not entitled to due process, the facility is considered to exist in violation of legal and constitutional norms by many observers, including the ACLU and Amnesty International.

A panel of experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council condemned the use of the facility in 2022.

"Guantánamo Bay is a site of unparalleled notoriety, defined by the systematic use of torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment against hundreds of men brought to the site and deprived of their most fundamental rights," the experts concluded.