Pakistani-American pleads guilty to terror charges

A Pakistani-American suspect, who is a legal US resident being held at Guantanamo Bay, has pleaded guilty to all charges as part of a deal that requires him to testify against other detainees.

The first high-value detainee to plead guilty to charges of helping terrorists plot and carry out attacks, Majid Shoukat Khan is expected to spend up to 19 years behind bars in exchange for the agreement, according to Col James Pohl, the presiding military commission judge.

Pohl pronounced Khan guilty Wednesday and said the sentencing is expected to take place in four years.

The defendant will be required to provide testimony against his fellow detainees during those years leading up to the sentencing. He’ll then receive credit for time served, leaving up to 15 years on his sentence, Pohl said.

The US military said Khan travelled from Baltimore to Karachi in 2002 to help Al Qaeda plan attacks in the United States and elsewhere.

The military said Khan conspired with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused Pakistani mastermind of the Sep 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to blow up underground storage tanks in the United States.

The government said Khan had also recorded a “martyr video” and donned an explosive vest and waited in a mosque where then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was expected. The plan failed when Musharraf did not show up.

He also was accused of giving $50,000 in Al Qaeda funds to a Southeast Asia-based Al Qaeda affiliate, which then gave the money to Jemaah Islamiyah to fund the August 2003 bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia.

That incident killed 11 people and wounded at least 181 others.

(IANS)