At no time did the jurors claim that Mr. Khan’s treatment was illegal. Their letter states that Mr. Khan, who never obtained U.S. citizenship, was considered an “alien unprivileged enemy of the enemy,” making him eligible for trial before a military commission and “technically not guaranteeing the rights of U.S. citizens.”
But, police officers noted, Mr Khan pleaded guilty, admitted his actions and “expressed regret over the influence of the victims and their families. Pardon is recommended. ”
The head of the jury, a Navy captain, told the court he had accepted a request from Mr. Khan’s military defense attorney, Military Major Michael J. Lyness, to consider drafting a letter of recommendation for pardon. It was addressed to a reference by military commissions, a senior Pentagon official overseeing the court-martial, a role currently played by Colonel Jeffrey D. Wood of the Arkansas National Guard.
The jurors did not know Colonel Wood reached an agreement z g. Khan to assess his cooperation with the government and reduce his sentence. In return, Mr. Khan and his team of lawyers agreed to abandon efforts to call witnesses to testify about his torture, which was most likely confidential as long as he could tell his story to the jury.
The jurors were also in favor of Mr Khan’s report that he was attracted to radical Islam in 2001 at the age of 21 after his mother’s death, and that he was recruited to Al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks. “A vulnerable target for the recruitment of extremists, he succumbed to influences that promoted Islamic radical philosophy, as did many others in recent years,” the letter said. “Now at 41, with a daughter he has never seen before, he regrets and is not a threat to future extremism.”
The committee received nine letters of support from Mr Khan from family members, including his father and several siblings – American citizens living in the United States – and his wife Rabio and daughter Manaal, who were born in Pakistan and live there.
Although this is rare, a military attorney may ask the senate for letters confirming mercy, such as a reduction in sentence, for a staff member convicted in a court-martial. But this was the first time that a jury request for sentencing had been made at Guantanamo, where the accused terrorists are being tried by a military commission.