Owings Mills High Grad's Terrorism Hearing Begins At Guantanamo Bay

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- From Baltimore County to the terrorist prison at Guantanamo, the life of Majid Khan now has a new twist.

A hearing could unravel a plea deal both Khan and the prosecution want.

Khan was captured by Pakistan in 2003, after delivering Al-Qaeda money to finance the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, which killed 11 and injured 70 more.

But in 1999, he was just another graduate from Owings Mills High School.

A few years later, his radicalization was complete.

"What makes him so interesting and also valuable, is how rapidly he was able to ascend the ranks of Al-Qaeda and make contacts with its upper level leadership," says Mike Vesely, of the UM Center for Health and Homeland Security.

That leadership included the master planner of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

The CIA held Khan in secret prisons for three years, where he was tortured.

In 2012, he entered guilty pleas to a number of terrorism charges, pledging to be a government witness against other defendants.

He will then be sentenced in 2018, depending on that testimony, and release no later than 2037.

However, "it's a very fluid situation right now," according to Vesely, because federal courts ruled some of the lesser guilty please were illegitimate. That launched a near hearing that could unravel everything.

"And if it's determined on those higher charges the military commission doesn't have jurisdiction, it could undermine the entire plea he's arranged."

Khan's hearing was set to begin today.

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