Al-Qaeda Suspect Released by Pakistan
High Court Orders Freedom for Two Other Prisoners

By Craig Whitlock and Griff Witte
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 21 -- An al-Qaeda operative suspected of involvement in plots targeting the United States and Britain spent more than two years in a secret prison run by Pakistan's spy agencies before he was released, a human rights group said Tuesday.

Muhammed Naeed Noor Khan, an engineer by training who served as a computer guru for al-Qaeda and conduit to the group's top commanders, was quietly freed by Pakistani officials in recent days -- three years after his capture in the eastern city of Lahore and subsequent disappearance. Khan never faced criminal charges, and Ali Dayan Hasan, a Pakistan-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, said evidence suggested he had been held for most of his three years at a secret detention center in Lahore operated by the Pakistani intelligence services.

Hasan said he interviewed two former inmates who were kept in cells adjacent to Khan's and who reported that he had been held there since late 2004. The former inmates reported being interrogated at times by U.S. investigators, but Hasan said it was unclear whether Khan had been as well.

The Pakistani government offered no explanation for Khan's release. But it appeared to be prompted, at least in part, by an aggressive campaign by Pakistan's Supreme Court to force the country's military and spy agencies to disclose the whereabouts of hundreds of missing terrorism suspects and political prisoners.

The court ordered two additional prisoners released on Tuesday, after the chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, earlier threatened to send a high-ranking official to jail if the government did not cooperate.

U.S. officials, meanwhile, said Khan's release appeared to be his reward for cooperating with Pakistani investigators. Khan, the officials said on condition of anonymity, had provided information that helped thwart a terrorist plot to attack Heathrow Airport in London.

An engineering graduate from Karachi, Khan disappeared after Pakistani authorities announced his capture in July 2004. But officials never filed criminal charges against him and later denied he was in their custody when his family filed petitions in court seeking information.

Khan's release was announced in the Supreme Court on Monday, but the government did not say where he had been held or precisely when he was let go.

U.S. and Pakistani counterterrorism officials had portrayed Khan's capture as a major breakthrough in their fight against al-Qaeda. Information gleaned from laptop computers seized after his arrest enabled Pakistani and U.S. investigators two weeks later to track down Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, an East African suspected of helping to organize the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Shortly afterward, information from the Khan investigation also led Scotland Yard detectives to Dhiren Barot, a British citizen accused of organizing a plot to bomb financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington, among other plans.

In his autobiography published last year, the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, linked Khan to other al-Qaeda plots in Britain, including plans to bomb London's Heathrow Airport, Canary Wharf and subway system.

Although Ghailani was taken to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Barot was convicted last year in a British court, Khan's whereabouts had remained a mystery, and some human rights groups questioned whether he had been transferred secretly to U.S. custody.

Babar Awan, a lawyer for Khan's family, said the first indication that Khan was still alive came in early July, when Pakistani officials secretly allowed him to visit his parents. Awan disclosed few details about the meeting, except to say that it took place in a "military-controlled environment."

"They were very happy -- finally, they saw the young lad," Awan said of Khan, who reportedly is in his late 20s. "They were kept under surveillance during the meeting and told not to talk too much."

Khan spent several months as a graduate student in London before his capture and lived with an aunt near Heathrow Airport, according to British news media reports. He came from a family of well-educated, professional Pakistanis. His father worked as a purser for Pakistani International Airlines and his mother as a botany professor in Karachi.

According to investigators, Khan first made contact with al-Qaeda in the late 1990s and eventually took orders from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, chief planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

While Khan's release did not come as the result of a court order, the government has been looking for ways to appease the chief justice, Chaudhry, as he takes up a list of cases that threaten Musharraf's grip on power. Among them are challenges to the president's plans for reelection while staying on as army chief.

Chaudhry had been pressing the government for information on the missing persons earlier this year when Musharraf attempted to remove him from office. After a four-month, nationwide campaign, Chaudhry was reinstated in July, and he has since picked up the issue with renewed vigor.

At a hearing Tuesday, Chaudhry pressed the government for information about Hafiz Abdul Basit, a 24-year-old Pakistani detained in the city of Faisalabad, and Aleem Nasir, a German national of Pakistani origin who was detained this summer while waiting for a flight to Germany.

"There are no charges against this guy, are there?" Chaudhry demanded angrily of government officials, referring to Nasir.

When the officials said no, Chaudhry ordered Nasir released.

Nasir said he endured repeated physical assaults by his captors during his time in custody. His arm revealed a grisly, seemingly fresh burn mark from his elbow to his palm, although his attorneys yelled at him not to discuss it when asked about it by reporters.

"When I am on the plane to Germany, I will be free," Nasir said in an interview as he exited the court. "As long as I am in Pakistan, I am not feeling free."

While the government had resisted efforts to track many of those who have gone missing, an Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, said Tuesday that officials would cooperate with the court's orders. "Nobody should be kept in extrajudicial custody, so the government is trying to help find the missing persons," he said. Cheema said the government has successfully traced 125 people from a list of more than 250.

Relatives of other people who have disappeared turned up at the courthouse Tuesday clutching framed photos of their loved ones.

Many said they were heartened by the court's action and were optimistic that Chaudhry would help them.

"My first hope is with Allah," said Zafir Khan, whose 28-year-old nephew was arrested under mysterious circumstances last October and has not been seen since. "After that, it is with Iftikhar Chaudhry."

Staff writer Glenn Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.