The chief prosecutor, Army Col. Walter H. Foster IV, asked the panel to issue a severe sentence. He admitted that Mr. Khan received “extremely harsh treatment” in CIA custody, but said he was “still alive”, which was “a luxury” that the victims of the Qaeda attacks did not have.
The chairman of the jury, a Navy captain, said in court that he accepted the defense’s request and drafted the clemency letter by hand, and that all but one sentencing jury officers signed it, using their numbers. member of the panel because jurors are anonymous in the Guantanamo National Security Court.
Ian C. Moss, a former Marine who is a civil attorney on Mr. Khan’s defense team, called the letter “an extraordinary reprimand.”
“Part of what makes the clemency letter so powerful is that, given the seniority of the jurors, it stands to reason that their military careers have been directly and probably personally affected by the last two decades of war.” , said.
At no point did the jurors suggest that Mr. Khan’s treatment was illegal. His letter noted that Mr. Khan, who never obtained US citizenship, was considered an “unprivileged foreign belligerent enemy,” a status that made him eligible for trial by a military commission and “technically not granted the rights of American citizens. “
But, officials noted, Mr. Khan pleaded guilty, acknowledged his actions and “expressed remorse for the impact on the victims and their families. Clemency is recommended. “
Sentencing was delayed nearly a decade after his guilty plea to give Mr. Khan time and opportunity to cooperate with federal and military prosecutors, so far behind the scenes, on federal and military terrorism cases. In the intervening years, prosecutors and defense attorneys clashed in court filings about that he would be called to testify about the abuse of Mr. Khan in CIA custody, and how.
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