Seven senior US officers serving on a military jury have rebuked the alleged CIA torture of a prisoner as “a stain on the moral fiber of America”.
A clemency letter from most of the panel, published by the New York Times, condemns the treatment of Majid Khan.
Khan admits working as an al-Qaeda courier and has been in custody since being captured in Pakistan in 2003.
His testimony was the first of its kind by a detainee held in an overseas CIA site in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
He testified last week about alleged abuse including beatings, waterboarding and being kept chained up in the dark.
He said that “the more I cooperated, the more I was tortured” in CIA custody and said he went on to make up lies in order to appease interrogators.
Khan grew up in Pakistan and moved to the US aged 16. He said he had been a “young, impressionable, vulnerable kid” when he was recruited to the organisation and, now 41, says he rejects both Al-Qaeda and terrorism.
His lawyer said his client was subject to “heinous and vile acts of torture” in custody despite sharing information with US intelligence officials from the outset of his detention.
