Roger Khan due for release on Monday

Shaheed Roger Khan

Convicted drug kingpin Shaheed Roger Khan is set to be released from a Florida prison on Monday after serving just over eight years of a 15-year prison sentence.

Khan, 47, is presently in what is described as “A low security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp.” July 8th 2019 is the date listed for his release.

In an attempt to be released months before, Khan on March 13th had filed an Emergency Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus in which he sought an order from the court requiring the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to recalculate his good-conduct credits, with the application of the retroactive section of the First Step Act.

 However, the BOP had objected.

That ongoing case is expected to be terminated as Khan is set to walk out from prison in a matter of days.

It is expected that he will be deported upon his release.

When sentencing Khan in October 2009 following his confession to drug trafficking, US Federal Judge Dora Irizarry had stated that following his prison term Khan would be placed on five years’ supervised release, but would more than likely be deported. She had warned him that if he re-entered the US illegally after deportation, he would be arrested and sentenced to a much longer prison term than 15 years.

In her comments during the sentencing, Judge Irizarry had stated that while no sentence imposed on Khan would make right whatever atrocities he had committed, the fact that he would serve time in a US prison meant that justice has been served. She had sentenced him to two terms of 15-years and one term of 10 years, all of which ran concurrently. He was also ordered to pay a special assessment of US$300.

The sentencing brought a climax to Khan’s case, which had riveted the country as explosive information linking the Guyana government to the once powerful and violent drug lord was revealed. Khan’s now convicted lawyer’s trial had been similarly revealing. Among other things, the revelations linked Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy to Khan and implicated him as being the government official authorising the importation of spy equipment found in a vehicle in which Khan and others were travelling. Ramsammy has repeatedly denied any links to Khan.