BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC –The Belize government says the United States will meet the initial resettlement expenses of a 42-year-old Pakistani national, who arrived here on Thursday after spending 20 years locked up in a military prison within the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba on terrorism charges.
Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Courtenay said Majid Khan is being given a second chance at starting his life over after years of abuse and torture while in detention.
Khan arrived in Belize as a free man, and the United States government is covering the initial expenses regarding his resettlement.
“The United States government formally requested the government of Belize to consider resettling Mr. Khan in Belize as a humanitarian act. After extended negotiations with the U.S. government and careful analysis, the Cabinet of Belize approved Mr. Khan’s resettlement in Belize at the cost of the United States government,” Courtenay said.
“Mr. Khan is not in Belize as a detainee. He has served his sentence and is a free man. Mr. Khan is not a terrorist. He has fully recanted, accepted responsibility for his action, asked Allah for forgiveness, and has been de-radicalized.,” he added.
Courtenay said Khan would be free to travel throughout the country, study, work, start a business, and make the most of his life after twenty years in detention.
“The United States government provides all the funds to cover Mr. Khan’s integration into Belizean society, including housing and initial living expenses. The Government of Belize considers Mr. Khan’s resettlement as a humanitarian act.
“Though Khan may have contributed to acts of terrorism, he was brutally abused and tortured. He has repudiated his radicalism, cooperated with U.S. authorities in the fight against terrorism, and has served his time,” Courtenay added.
Courtenay, US Ambassador Michelle Kwan, and a Bureau of Political-Military Affairs representative participated in a news conference on the decision to have Khan resettled in Belize.
Courtenay reiterated that Khan is not a threat to the security of Belize.
“Try to imagine being incarcerated for 20 years, solitary confinement for years on end, with no contact with the outside world. He had no cell phone, no… today, when he arrived at the airport, and about six or seven of us greeted him, he was perplexed, saying, “There are so many people here. There’s a room. Wow, I’m drinking out of a ceramic cup.
“ So what I am trying to say to you, for Belizean purposes, this man is seeing freedom for the first time in 20 years,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said.
Khan was born in Medina, Saudi Arabia, in February 1980 and grew up in Pakistan until 1996, when he relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, with his family. But he was captured by CIA agents in Karachi, Pakistan, several years later.
Courtenay said Khan was involved in certain terrorist activities between 2002 and 2003, was captured in March 2003 in Pakistan, and has been in custody since then.
Following his capture, Khan was tortured at various CIA sites, including waterboarding, force enemas, starvation, sleep deprivation, beatings, sexual assaults, grueling interrogations, and mental torture.
In 2002, Khan met and married Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of several conspirators who coordinated the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States. Later that year, Khan met with an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Thailand, where he delivered US$50,000 that would help to fund the 2003 Marriot Hotel bombing. That incident in Jakarta, Indonesia, claimed the lives of 12 people.
Tina Kaidanow of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs told reporters that “this is an individual, as you pointed out, Mr. Khan, who for almost, I mean, amazingly and remarkably, as I said, he accepted what he did.
“He said he was remorseful. He has now displayed a great deal of excitement at coming, the idea of coming to Belize and is deeply hopeful. I know this personally. He is deeply hopeful that he would be able to find a home here.”
Courtenay said Khan’s resettlement to Belize, notwithstanding his lengthy detention, was preceded by an extensive vetting process that included at least two Cabinet discussions and visits by Belizean officials to the naval base in Cuba.
“We had the police who went with us to Guantanamo Bay to interview him, question him, and get their own assessment of him. The National Security Advisor also visited and did his own analysis.
“I should point out that a tremendous amount of paperwork had been provided to us, which had to be analyzed by the security forces. We also were accompanied by Dr. Fernando Cuellar, who did the medical assessment and is satisfied that he is not unwell and that the treatment that he needs because of what he went through,” the Foreign Minister added.
U.S. Ambassador, Michelle Kwan, read out a statement that Brian Nichols, the Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, released.
“The Government of Belize’s decision to resettle Majid Khan, who has completed his sentence brought by the Office of Military Commissions in Guantanamo Bay, represents a meaningful humanitarian gesture.
“Mr. Khan entered a plea agreement in 2012 and has fully cooperated with the U.S. government since that time. Belize’s commitment to human rights as evidenced by its generous support in working with the United States to resettle Mr. Khan,” the statement noted.
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