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Summary Majid Shoukat will appear for an arraignment hearing before a US military commission.
Majid Shoukat Khan, a Pakistani-American, will appear for an arraignment hearing before a US military commission at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba on February 29 (Wednesday).He is the first detainee of Pakistani origin who is going to appear for a trial in Guantanamo. The charges against a couple of other detainees from Pakistan were brought by the Department of Defense but later dropped, so the case was never referred for trial.Khan is accused of a failed plot to assassinate the then President Pervez Musharraf in March 2002 when he wore a suicide jacket to a mosque where Musharraf was supposed to visit. He had also recorded a video of himself swearing to kill Musharraf, but the plot failed when Musharraf never arrived at the mosque.He is also accused of acting as a courier to arrange $50,000 for JW Marriot hotel bombing in Jakarta in 2003 besides providing material and other kind of support for terrorist attacks in United States, on the directions of top al-Qaeda operative, Khalid Shaikh Muhammad post-9/11.Khan was picked-up from Karachi in late 2003 and was reportedly kept at a secret location by CIA before shifting him to Guantanamo in September 2006. He had moved to United States with his family in 1996 and obtained nationality before returning to Pakistan in 2002.The US Defense Department announced formal charges against him on February 14 this year. The charges mention that he used a forged travel document to travel to Pakistan from his home in Baltimore, Maryland, in United States in January 2002.“Khan is charged with conspiracy, murder and attempted murder in violation of the law of war, providing material support for terrorism and spying”, Pentagon said and the military commission will start its hearing at Guantanamo accordingly.The Chief Prosecutor of the US Military, Mark Martins, has referred the charges against Majid Khan to the convening authority with the recommendation that these be referred to the military commission for trial. Because he had not recommended any of these to be referred to a military commission empowered to award death penalty, therefore the maximum allowable penalty for the charged offenses could lead to life imprisonment.However, Khan, who turned 32 a day before the hearing, has reportedly entered a plea agreement with the US government, thereby agreeing to testify against other Guantanamo detainees in exchange for a reduced sentence.A spokesman of the US Department of Defense, Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale confirmed the plea agreement without going into the specifics. He, however, said that a “part of the agreement included sentencing period between 25 to 40 years”.There have been reports of Majid Khan’s marriage to Dr. Afia Siddiqui, convicted in September 2010 to 86 years in prison by a US court, on alleged charges of assault with attempt to murder US military personnel. However, the US military is reluctant to confirm or deny these reports.Coutney Sullivan of the US Justice Department has been assigned as the trial counsel, with Army Lt. Col. Michael Hosang and Navy Lt. Nathaniel Gross as assistant trial counsels, in this case while Jonathan Dixon will be Khan’s defense lawyer. A military judge will hear the case under the US Military Commissions Act of 2009.- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Gunatanamo Bay, Cuba
