A Sudanese cameraman with the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera on Friday accused US authorities of insulting Islamic symbols on his return home after six years of detention at Guantanamo Bay.
There were "many violations - (we were) deprived from praying and there were... deliberate insults to God's holy book" the Holy Quran at the US military prison in Guantanamo, Sami al-Haj said from his hospital bed in Khartoum. Haj, whose overnight homecoming was broadcast live on Al-Jazeera, was taken from the US military aircraft that flew him into the Sudanese capital with two other Sudanese former Guantanamo inmates to a hospital for medical checks.
The US air force plane landed at a state security terminal in Khartoum, where Haj was greeted by his family before being whisked away to the hospital, an AFP photographer said. Haj was detained by the Pakistani army on the Afghan border in December 2001 while covering the US war in Afghanistan, and had been held without charge since June 2002 at the US naval base in Cuba. His case was championed by many human rights and media watchdogs.
"We are entitled to shed tears of joy after these difficult seven years of humiliation, persecution and injustice which we went through for no reason other than that we believe in the one almighty God," said Haj, who was shown by Al-Jazeera speaking on a mobile phone. "We hope governments will speed up attempts to repatriate their nationals because they live in extremely bad conditions" at Guantanamo, he said.
Haj, 39, said he believes one reason he was detained was an attempt by the United States "to abort free media reporting" in the Middle East. He cited "the bombing of Al-Jazeera's offices" in Kabul and Baghdad in 2003 as evidence. News of Haj's release broke late on Thursday. There was no comment from the Pentagon several hours later, but press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which has campaigned for Haj to be freed, expressed relief. "Sami al-Haj should never have been held so long," said secretary general Robert Menard in a statement released in Washington.
"US 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."
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