Gaza (PIC)– Hamas has sent a message to al-Jazeera satellite channel congratulating the management and staff on the release of their colleague; Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj from US detention in Guantanamo Bay.
Al-Haj was detained and tortured at the ill-reputed camp for more than six years without charge or trial and arrived in Khartoum in the early hours of Friday on board an American military aircraft he was carried from the plane to a waiting ambulance where he was taken to hospital suffering from exhaustion.
Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip expressed in a press release the joy felt by everyone at the news of the release of al-Haj and consider his release as an expression of failure of the US administration to prove any allegations against the journalist and failure of the US administration in its campaign against al-Jazeera satellite station. He also called on the tv channel to continue with its national and humanistic mission despite all the difficulties.
Hamas has also expressed hope that the release of Sami al-Haj would bring to the focus the suffering of more than 11000 Palestinian captives in Israeli jails many of them detained without charge or trial.
Sami al-Haj spoke by phone to al-Jazeera shortly after arriving at hospital and talked of the suffering and humiliation he and his fellow detainees had to endure in captivity. He spoke of captives being denied to perform their daily prayers and of the Quran being continually desecrated by the prison guards. He said that there are a number of captives who have lost their sanity and urged governments to work for the release of their nationals from the notorious detention camp.
On the reasons for his detention he said that the only reason he could think of is the determination of the US administration to silence any media outlet that exposes its schemes and atrocities in the region and he cited the killing of al-Jazeera journalist Tariq Ayyoub in Bagdad in 2003 and the trial of al-Jazeera journalist Tayseer Allouni in Spain and Bush’s intention to bomb al-Jazeera offices in Qatar as evidence of the US administration’s war on the media.
He also said that he was offered to be released earlier in return for working in al-Jazeera as an informer but he rejected the offer.
