Hajji Nasrat Khan is an elderly citizen of Afghanistan best known for the more than three years he spent in extrajudicial detention 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.
Khan, who has been crippled since 1986, was 80 years old in April 2006.My Guantanamo Diary: Face to Face With the War on Terrorism, Washington Post, April 29, 2006 He was the oldest prisoner remaining at Guantanamo by the time he was released (August, 2006).Three years on, Guantánamo detainee, 78, goes home, The Guardian, September 22, 2006
Combatant Status Review Tribunal
Nasrat Khan was among the 60% of prisoners who chose to participate in his tribunal hearings.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 , September 4, 2007
Summary of Evidence memo
A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Hajji Nasrat Khan's Combatant Status Review Tribunal, on 5 October 2004. The memo listed the following allegations against him:
Transcript
Khan chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.
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.Summarized transcript (.pdf) , from Hajji Nasrat Khan's Administrative Review Board hearing - pages 257-265
The following primary factors favor continued detention
The following primary factor favor release or transfer
Witness at other Tribunals
Khan was interviewed, and provided a statement for Hamidullah's Tribunal.Summarized transcripts (.pdf) , from Hamidullah's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 89-101 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.
Khan's age
United Kingdom newspaper, The Guardian, republished an Associated Press article, devoted to Khan, which speculated about his age. Diverse Group of Detainees at Guantanamo, The Guardian, May 16, 2006 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.Guantánamo's eldest detainee goes home, Miami Herald, August 28, 200671-year-old Gitmo detainee released, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 28, 2006
Peter M. Ryan, one of Khan's lawyers, learned of his return by e-mail from the DoD, on the following weekend, and never did learn the reason for Khan's detention.Afghan detainee, 71, released by U.S., The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 28, 2006
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.,Lawyer: Guantanamo's oldest detainee returned to Afghanistan ,KPLC 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.
See also Hiztullah Yar Nasrat his son formerly detained at Guantanamo Mohammed Sadiq another elderly prisoner held at Guantanamo Haji Faiz Mohammed elderly prisoner held at Guantanamo
References
External links America's prison for terrorists often held the wrong men McClatchy June 15, 2008 Nusrat Khan McClatchy Guantánamo: The Stories of Three Innocent Jordanians and an Afghan, Just Released Andy Worthington