Sami al-Haj: Free After 6 Years in Gitmo

Posted by Mike Connery, AlterNet at 4:13 PM on May 2, 2008.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now is reporting that Sami al-Haj, a cameraman for Al Jazeera who was held at Guantanamo for six and a half years without trial or charge, has finally been released:

AMY GOODMAN: Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj has just been released from Guantanamo Bay. The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders issued a statement Thursday saying Sami al-Haj had been tortured while at Guantanamo and subjected to 200 interrogation sessions. He's lost 40 pounds, is suffering from intestinal problems and bouts of paranoia, according to his lawyer Clive Stafford Smith.

Asim al-Haj, who is Sami al-Haj's younger brother, told Al Jazeera he doesn't recognize his 39-year-old brother, because he now looks like a man in his eighties. We spoke to Asim al-Haj on Thursday night, a few hours before Sami al-Haj landed in Khartoum.

ASIM AL-HAJ: [translated] First of all, we never even imagined that Sami could be arrested. Then, we had never expected that he could be taken to Guantanamo. It was a huge shock to us when we found out he was in Guantanamo, but even then, we could never have imagined that he would be kept there for more than six years.

Today, it's been six-and-a-half years. Now, thank God, we can barely believe he's coming back. It feels like we're living in a dream. With Sami's return, we hope to find some peace again, and we hope that he can become an active member of society as soon as possible. Sami needs to get the medical attention he needs so he can recover.

Based on the information we have from the delegation that visited Sami al-Haj, he is in a very grave condition and is suffering from several health problems. I can't explain them all, but he was force-fed via tube for the past year and a half. What we do know is that he has asked the delegation accompanying him to take him straight from the airport to the hospital. He knows how ill he has become. We hope that he gets the specific kind of medical care that he needs at a facility that is well known and that we agree upon, so that we can ensure Sami al-Haj is taken care of and we can be assured that he will live and be guaranteed a good future.

Today, I'd like to urge the United Nations, international human rights organizations and the international press to bring a serious investigation into the case of Sami al-Haj, because we really have no idea what happened to Sami al-Haj while he was at Guantanamo.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Asim al-Haj, speaking to us from Sudan yesterday. He is Sami al-Haj's brother.

Yes, the Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj has been released from Guantanamo. He arrived in his home town of Khartoum, Sudan early this morning. He was detained in Guantanamo for nearly six-and-a-half years without a trial or any charges brought against him. He was arrested in Pakistan in December of 2001 while traveling to Afghanistan for work with Al Jazeera, then transferred to US custody, and six months later taken to Guantanamo Bay.

Today, he was flown into Sudan on a U.S. military aircraft along with two other Sudanese men formerly imprisoned at Guantanamo, as well. They told Al Jazeera they were blindfolded, handcuffed and chained to their seats during the flight home.

The only statement from the United States came from the embassy in Khartoum confirming the "detainee transfer." A senior Defense official in Washington, D.C. told Reuters on the condition of anonymity that al-Haj was "not being released" but "being transferred to the Sudanese government." But the Sudanese Justice Minister told Al Jazeera al-Haj would not face arrest or any charges.

Al-Haj, who's been on a hunger strike since January of 2007, was taken to a hospital immediately after landing in Khartoum. After a tearful reunion with his family, he spoke out against the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo in an interview broadcast on Al Jazeera.

Here's Sami al-Haj in his own words:

SAMI AL-HAJ: [translated] I'm very happy to be in Sudan, but I'm very sad because of the situation of our brothers who remain in Guantanamo. Conditions in Guantanamo are very, very bad, and they get worse by the day. Our human condition, our human dignity was violated, and the American administration went beyond all human values, all moral values, all religious values. In Guantanamo, you have animals that are called iguanas, rats that are treated with more humanity. But we have people from more than 50 countries that are completely deprived of all rights and privileges, and they will not give them the rights that they give to animals.

For more than seven years, I did not get a chance to be brought before a civil court. To defend their just case and to get the freedom that we're deprived of, they ignored every kind of law, every kind of religion. But thank God. I was lucky, because God allowed that I be released. Although I'm happy, there is part of me that is not, because my brothers remain behind, and they are in the hands of people that claim to be champions of peace and protectors of rights and freedoms.

But the true just peace does not come through military force or threats to use smart or stupid bombs or to threaten with economic sanctions. Justice comes from lifting oppression and guaranteeing rights and freedoms and respecting the will of the people and not to interfere with a country's internal politics.

Tagged as: war on terror, sami al-haj, guantanamo bay