Go to Original
Khartoum, Sudan - An Al-Jazeera cameraman was released from US custody at Guantanamo Bay and returned home to Sudan early Friday after six years of imprisonment that drew worldwide protests.
Sami al-Haj arrived at the airport in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, on a US military plane along with two other Sudanese released from Guantanamo.
Al-Haj was the only journalist from a major international news organization held at Guantanamo and many of his supporters saw his detention as punishment for a network whose broadcasts angered U.S. officials.
The military alleged he was a courier for a militant Muslim organization, an allegation his lawyers denied.
"It was a big surprise for the family," al-Haj's brother Assem said, with tears in his eyes as he stood at Khartoum airport waiting for his brother's arrival. "Finally the day has come to see him freed."
Al-Haj was detained in December 2001 by Pakistani authorities as he tried to enter Afghanistan to cover the U.S.-led invasion. He was turned over to the U.S. military and taken in January 2002 to Guantanamo Bay, where the United States holds some 275 men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban, most of them without charges.
Reprieve, the British human rights group that represents 35 Guantanamo prisoners, said Pakistani forces apparently seized al-Haj at the behest of the U.S. authorities who suspected he had interviewed Osama bin Laden, said .
But that "supposed intelligence" turned out to be false, Reprieve said in a news release.
"This is wonderful news, and long overdue," said Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's director, who has represented al-Haj since 2005. "The U.S. administration has never had any reason for holding Mr. Al Haj, and has, instead, spent six years shamelessly attempting to turn him against his employers at Al-Jazeera."
Sudanese officials said al-Haj would not face any charges upon his return.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, declined comment.
Al-Haj's lawyers say the 38-year-old has been on hunger strike since January 2007 to protest conditions and indefinite confinement at the prison. As of Monday, the military said there were seven men on hunger strike. Hunger strikers at Guantanamo are force-fed twice daily with tubes pushed through their noses.
Attorney Zachary Katznelson of Reprieve, who met al-Haj at Guantanamo on April 11, said shortly after the meeting that the cameraman was "emaciated" because of his hunger strike. The lawyer also said al-Haj had recently been having problems with his liver and kidneys and had blood in his urine.
"Sami is a poster child for everything that is wrong about Guantanamo Bay: no charges, no trial, constantly shifting allegations, brutal treatment, no visits with family, not even a phone call home," Katznelson said Thursday.
"Sami was never alleged to have hurt a soul, and was never proven to have committed any crimes. Yet, he had fewer rights than convicted mass murderers or rapists. What has happened to American justice?"
Wadah Khanfar, managing director of Al-Jazeera Arabic, said al-Haj would spend a few days in a hospital upon his arrival in Sudan because of health problems related to his hunger strike.
"We are in a state of high expectation and we are overwhelmed with joy," said Khanfar. He added that al-Haj's wife and child were flying from Doha, Qatar to Khartoum immediately to see him.
Al-Jazeera is based in Qatar and is funded by the royal family of the Persian Gulf nation. Its Arabic channel has been excoriated by the Bush administration as a mouthpiece for terrorists including Osama bin Laden.
Al-Haj was never prosecuted at Guantanamo so the U.S did not make public its full allegations against him. But in a hearing that determined that he was an enemy combatant, U.S. officials alleged that in the 1990s, al-Haj was an executive assistant at a Qatar-based beverage company that provided support to Muslim fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya.
The U.S. claimed he also traveled to Azerbaijan at least eight times to carry money on behalf of his employer to the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, a now defunct charity that U.S. authorities say funded militant groups.
The officials said during this period that he met Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, a senior lieutenant to Osama bin Laden who was arrested in Germany in 1998 and extradited to the United States. Officials did not provide details.
Reporters Without Borders expressed "huge relief" at al-Haj's relief.
"Sami Al-Haj should never have been held so long. U.S. authorities never proved that he had been involved in any kind of criminal activity. This case is yet another example of the injustice reigning in Guantanamo. The base should be closed as quickly as possible," the group said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists also welcomed the release.
"His detention for six years, without the most basic due process, is a grave injustice and represents a threat to all journalists working in conflict areas," it said.
Reprieve identified the two other Sudanese Guantanamo detainees who were released as Amir Yacoub Al Amir and Walid Ali.
No comments:
Post a Comment