Nasrat Khan

Hajji Nasrat Khan is an elderly citizen of Afghanistan best known for the more than three years he spent in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. The United States Department of Defense believed that he was an enemy combatant and assigned him the Internment Serial Number 1009.[1]

Nasrat Khan
Other name(s) Nasrat Khan

Khan has been crippled since 1986. In April 2006, Khan was 80 years old.[2] He was the oldest prisoner remaining at Guantanamo by the time he was released (August, 2006 [3]).

Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Main article: Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Nasrat Khan was among the 60% of prisoners who chose to participate in his tribunal hearings.[4]

Summary of Evidence memo

A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Hajji Nasrat Khan's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 5 October 2004.[5] The memo listed the following allegations against him:

a. The detainee was a member of a Terrorist Organization tied to al Qaida:
  1. The detainee was a local commander in the HIG.
  2. The detainee was a primary coordinator for the HIG in Sarobi, Afghanistan.
  3. HIG leadership reportedly had a plot to kidnap one or more coalition force members to use as hostages in exchange for arrested HIG leader Hajji Nasrat Khan (detainee) and his son Izat
  4. The HIG is an active terrorist organization in Afghanistan with long established ties to Usama Bin Laden.
b. The detainee was engaged in hostile activities against the United States or its coalition partners:
  1. Large caches of weapons were recovered from the compound where detainee lived, including 107MM rocket launchers, PKMs, AK-47s and uniforms.
  2. At the time of detainee's captured [sic], the HIG was conducting surveillance and planning rocket attacks against US forces in the area.

Transcript

Khan chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.[6]

Administrative Review Board hearing

Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant".

They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat - or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free.

Khan chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.[7]

The following primary factors favor continued detention

a. Commitment
  1. Detainee's son admitted that he and his father fought with the Taliban.
  2. Detainee was captured by United States Forces with 700 weapons, including small arms and rockets.
  3. Detainee was captured with letters addressed to him and from him although he claims to be uneducated and illiterate.
b. Training
  1. Detainee claims he served in the Afghan Army in the late 1950s or 1960s. Detainee claims he only served as an infantryman for approximately two years and only received small arms training.
c. Connections/Associations
  1. Detainee was a Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin [sic] commander.
  2. Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) was one of the major mujahedin groups in the war against the Soviets. HIG has long established ties with Usama bin Laden. Gulbuddin Hikmatyar founded HIG. Hikmatyar ran several terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and was a pioneer in sending mercenary fighters to other Islamic fighting conflicts. Hikmatyar offered to shelter Usama bin Laden after he later fled Sudan in 1996.
  3. Detainee was a village leader in an area controlled by the Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin (HIG).
  4. Detainee claims he only met Gulbuddin Hikmatyar once.
  5. Reporting states Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin members were planning to kidnap United States Personnel on the Kabul to Jalalabad road between the Sorobi, Kabul province, Afghanistan and Jalalabad, Nangrahar province], Afghanistan to exchange for a captured Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin commander.
  6. Further reporting states Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin wanted to kidnap United States military personnel from Bagram Airfield.
  7. Detainee claims that Engineer Wasil was his son's commander.
  8. Reporting states Wasil is a known member of Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin.
  9. Reporting further states Wasil is not supportive of the United States, and believes the United States should not be in Afghanistan.
  10. Detainee's son is a commander of the Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin.
  11. Detainee's son admitted to having a weapons cache in his residence in the region of Sorobi.
  12. Reporting states the Detainee's son has links to al Qaida, Taliban and Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin which led to his son's arrest.

The following primary factor favor release or transfer

  1. Detainee claims he retired as the Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin fifteen years ago when his health began to fail.
  2. Detainee stated he did know anything about the weapons found in the residence he was captured in.

Witness at other Tribunals

Khan was interviewed, and provided a statement for Hamidullah's Tribunal.[8] He confirmed that Hamidullah had only been a teenager when he had been in the HiG, and that he had been a deserter.

Habeas Corpus

Philadelphia lawyer Peter M. Ryan is representing Khan in his habeas corpus motion.[2]

Khan's age

United Kingdom newspaper, The Guardian, republished an Associated Press article, devoted to Khan, which speculated about his age. [9] The article says that the United States estimates Khan's age as 71. It says that Khan doesn't know his age for sure, but believes he is about 78. The article states that Khan requires a walker.

Return to Afghanistan

Khan was reported to have been one of five Afghans returned to Afghanistan on August 28, 2006.[10][11]

Peter M. Ryan, one of Khan's lawyers, learned of his return by e-mail from the DoD, on the following weekend,[11] and never did learn the reason for Khan's detention.[12]

Ryan initially expressed concerns whether Khan could expect the Afghan authorities to free him, upon his return, or whether they would put him in the Afghan prison system.,[13] but Khan did not ultimately face arrest upon his return to Afghanistan.

Guantanamo Medical records

On 16 March 2007, the Department of Defense published medical records for the detainees.[14]

See also

References
  1. OARDEC (May 15, 2006). "List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
  2. My Guantanamo Diary: Face to Face With the War on Terrorism, Washington Post, April 29, 2006
  3. Three years on, Guantánamo detainee, 78, goes home, The Guardian, September 22, 2006
  4. OARDEC, Index to Transcripts of Detainee Testimony and Documents Submitted by Detainees at Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo Between July 2004 and March 2005 Archived 2007-12-03 at the Wayback Machine, September 4, 2007
  5. OARDEC (5 October 2004). "Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Khan, Hajji Nasrat" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. 18–19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2008. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  6. OARDEC. "Detainee transcript" (PDF). United States Department of Defense. pp. 17–25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-01-14. Retrieved 2009-06-19.
  7. Summarized transcript (.pdf) Archived 2010-01-14 at the Wayback Machine, from Hajji Nasrat Khan's Administrative Review Board hearing - pages 257-265
  8. Summarized transcripts (.pdf) Archived 2008-05-07 at the Wayback Machine, from Hamidullah's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 89-101
  9. Diverse Group of Detainees at Guantanamo, The Guardian, May 16, 2006
  10. Guantánamo's eldest detainee goes home, Miami Herald, August 28, 2006
  11. 71-year-old Gitmo detainee released, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 28, 2006
  12. Afghan detainee, 71, released by U.S., The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 28, 2006
  13. Lawyer: Guantanamo's oldest detainee returned to Afghanistan Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine,KPLC
  14. JTF-GTMO (2007-03-16). "Measurements of Heights and Weights of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba". Department of Defense. Archived from the original on 2009-01-25. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
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