GUANTANAMO JOURNO RELEASED

05-05-2008

BBC journalist gets taken hostage and it's front page news. Al Jazeera cameraman gets banged up in Guantanamo Bay, and the world looks the other way. Except that, as David Nicholl reports, he's finally been set free.

Last year I reported the case of Sami Al Haj, the Al Jazeera journalist who had held been held without charge by the US military for over 6 years and compared his treatment by our media with that of the BBC’s Alan Johnston.

It was announced that he had arrived in the early hours of Friday morning in Sudan by US military transport. He had to be taken by stretcher as he was in such poor medical condition having been on hunger strike for 16 months and enduring a painful forcefeeding regime.

He later spoke to Zachary Katznelson, Reprieve’s Senior Counsel, to thank Reprieve and other human rights activists globally for their work on his behalf. Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve’s Director, who has represented Sami since 2005, said:

“This is wonderful news, and long overdue. The US 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.

“We at Reprieve send him our best wishes as he is reunited with his wife and his seven-year-old son Mohammed, whom he has not seen since Mohammed was a baby.”

Sami was seized by Pakistani forces on December 15, 2001, apparently at the behest of the US authorities, who suspected that he had conducted an interview with Osama bin Laden. As with much of their supposed intelligence, this turned out to be false.

As a trained journalist, Sami’s insights into the horrors of Guantánamo have been unparalleled. Subjected to clearance by the Pentagon’s censors, his letters and his conversations with his lawyers at Reprieve have shed light on the abuse of Koran, suicide attempts, hunger strikes and the number of juveniles held at the prison.

Also released over the weekend were two other Reprieve clients, Sami’s compatriot Amir Yacoub, who, like Sami, was released without charge, and Said Al Boujaadia, a Moroccan, who was detained on arrival in Kenitra.

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