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Majid Khan, a former al-Qaeda messenger who went through Guantanamo in particular, was on trial on Friday, October 29. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison. On this occasion, he was able to detail the violence he suffered during interrogations by the American intelligence agency CIA. His revelations say a lot about the atrocities committed in secret prisons.
« Dungeon ” or ” I was treated like a dog “. This is how Majid Khan describes the CIA sites, where he was locked up for three years, since his arrest for terrorism, in Karachi on March 5, 2003. The Pakistan-born man, 41, is the first detainee to testify abuse suffered in CIA prisons.
Torture, rape, threats, the physical violence he describes are legion. For example, those interrogations in which his head covered with a balaclava was immersed in ice water until he spoke, simulations of drowning.
However, he confessed a few days after his capture, admitting to having participated in an assassination attempt of the Pakistani president, or to have given 50,000 dollars to active members of al-Qaeda in the archipelago of Indonesia.
He mentions sexual assault: “ I was raped by CIA medics. While I was tied up, they inserted tubes and objects into my anus. Speaks of a garden hose in particular. ” Whenever I was tortured, I told them what I thought they wanted to hear. I was lying to stop the violence. »
► Read also: Guantanamo or the legacy of torture, neither trial nor closure
Through a 39-page letter, read during the hearing, this former Guantanamo in particular claims to have been suspended by chains for several days, naked, without eating, in windowless cells in several secret prisons agency, located in unidentified countries.
His interrogators, he said, threatened to attack his family, who migrated with him when he was 16, in a previous life, to Baltimore. For example, to rape his sister. ” They beat me until I begged them to stop. The worst part was not knowing when the shots would come, or where they would come from », confie Majid Khan.
Declaring himself almost blind without glasses, he assures that after his own were broken, he “ had to wait three years before receiving a new pair “. Due to several nights of sleep deprivation, “ I remember having hallucinations, seeing a cow and a giant lizard. I had lost all contact with reality. »
This therefore lasted until 2006. However, Majid did not stop cooperating with the American services after his arrest. ” But the more I cooperated, the more they tortured me Denounces this immigrant to the United States, recruited by members of his family belonging to al-Qaeda during a visit to his country of origin.
No reaction to the CIA at this time. In 2014, a Senate report already pinned the agency for its practice of torture after the September 11 attacks. Majid Khan, for his part, said on Friday that he forgave his torturers.
► To reread: Report on torture at the CIA, a complicated exercise in democracy
« It has been almost 20 years since I have been detained and held in solitary confinement, I have paid dearly “, He notes in fact, adding:” I reject al-Qaeda, I reject terrorism (…) I will be at peace when I have forgiven myself and when I have forgiven others for the harm they have done me. » « To those who tortured me : I forgive you. All. »
« Strong words from Majid », Explains one of his lawyers, Me Katya Jestin,« reveal the devastating atrocities committed by our own government in the name of our national security “. And to conclude: ” The CIA program was a failure, and it was contrary to our democratic principles and the rule of law. »
The jury sentenced him to 26 years in detention, according to a spokesperson for the military court. But given an agreement with the judge when he pleaded guilty, he could be released next year.
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