Al Jazeera hostage released from six years in Guantanamo without charge after hunger strike

Sami al-Hajj hits out at US captors 

[Al JAzeera's] Al-Hajj was the only journalist from a major international news organisation held at Guantanamo and many of his supporters saw his detention as punishment for the network's broadcasts. 

Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj has hit out at the treatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison where he was held for nearly six and a half years.

He said that "rats are treated with more humanity", than the inmates, whose "human dignity was violated".   Al-Hajj, who arrived in Sudan early on Friday, was carried off a US air force jet on a stretcher and immediately taken to hospital.

Later, he had an emotional reunion with his wife and son.  His brother, Asim al-Hajj, said that he did not recognise the cameraman because he looked like a man in his 80s...

"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," he said from his hospital bed.

"In Guantanamo ... rats are treated with more humanity. But we have people from more than 50 countries that are completely deprived of all rights and privileges.  Al-Hajj complained that "for more than seven years, [inmates] did not get a chance to be brought before a civil court to defend their just case".

The US embassy in Khartoum issued a brief statement confirming that a "detainee transfer" to Sudan had taken place and saying it appreciated Sudan's co-operation.

A senior US defence official in Washington speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Reuters news agency that al-Hajj was "not being released [but] being transferred to the Sudanese government".

But Sudan's justice minister told Al Jazeera that al-Hajj was a free man and would not be arrested or face any charges.  Two other Sudanese inmates at Guantanamo, Amir Yacoub al-Amir and Walid Ali, were freed along with al-Hajj.  The two said they were blindfolded, handcuffed and chained to their seats during the flight home.

Al-Hajj was the only journalist from a major international news organisation held at Guantanamo and many of his supporters saw his detention as punishment for the network's broadcasts.  He was seized by Pakistani intelligence officers while travelling near the Afghan border in December 2001.

Despite holding a legitimate visa to work for Al Jazeera's Arabic channel in Afghanistan, he was handed to the US military in January 2002 and sent to Guantanamo Bay.  Al-Hajj, who is originally from Sudan, was held as an "enemy combatant" without ever facing trial or charges.

Al-Hajj was never prosecuted at Guantanamo so the US did not make public its full allegations against him.  His lawyers have always denied the allegations [that were made].

Al-Hajj had been on hunger strike since January 7, 2007.

David Remes, a lawyer for 17 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, told Al Jazeera that the treatment al-Hajj received "was more horrific than most" and that there was "an element of racism" in the way he was treated.

Full report at Al Jazeera May 31, 2008