Sami al-Hajj

Al Hajj was arrested in Pakistan on December 15, 2001.[6] He was on his way to work in Afghanistan as a cameraman for Al Jazeera and had a legitimate visa. He was held as an "enemy combatant" at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, with Guantanamo Internment Serial Number 345, and was the only journalist to be held in Guantanamo.

British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith represented al-Hajj, and was able to visit him in 2005. According to Stafford Smith, Al Hajj had "endured horrendous abuse - sexual abuse and religious persecution" and that he had been beaten, leaving a "huge scar" on his face. Stafford Smith also said that Al Hajj had witnessed "the Quran being flushed down the toilet by US soldiers in Afghanistan" and "expletives being written on the Muslim holy book".[7]

On 23 November 2005, Stafford Smith said that, during (125 of 130) interviews, U.S. officials had questioned Al Hajj as to whether Al Jazeera was a front for al-Qaeda.[8]

Stafford Smith stated of his client that:

He is completely innocent. He is about as much of a terrorist as my granddad. The only reason he has been treated like he has is because he is an Al Jazeera journalist. The Americans have tried to make him an informant with the goal of getting him to say that Al Jazeera is linked to Al Qaida.[7]

Al Jazeera responded that Al Hajj reported his passport stolen in Sudan in 1999, and that anything done with the passport after that date was likely the work of identity thieves.

During Al Hajj's time in captivity, Reporters Without Borders repeatedly expressed concern over his detention, mentioning Al Hajj in its annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, and launched a petition for his release.[2][9][10][11][12]

In January 2007, Al Hajj and several other inmates went on hunger strike in protest of their treatment in Guantanamo,[13][14] during which Al Hajj lost over 55 pounds.[15] In response to the hunger strike, Al Hajj and the other inmates were force-fed.[16] Al Hajj's hunger strike lasted 438 days until he was set free on 1 May 2008.

When Alan Johnston, former Gaza Correspondent for the BBC, was abducted on 12 March 2007 in Gaza City by gunmen from the Army of Islam and held for 113 days, Sami Al Hajj made a plea to Johnston's captors to let the journalist go. Following his release, Johnston made a similar plea for the release of Al Hajj, being held by the United States Government in Guantanamo.[17]

On 20 April 2007, the UK newspaper, The Guardian, started publishing excerpts from Clive Stafford Smith's book, Bad Men: Guantanamo Bay and the Secret Prisons. According to Stafford Smith:[6]

Against the background of this campaign against al-Jazeera, what I learned about Sami's ongoing interrogation in Guantanamo was disturbing. In the first 100-plus sessions, the US military never posed a question about the allegations against him, as they were only interested in turning him into an informant against al-Jazeera. He had to ask them to interrogate him about what he was supposed to have done wrong.

In 1998, Al Hajj was treated for throat cancer and prescribed a course of anti-cancer drugs that he was to take every day for the rest of his life.[18] In letters from the detention camp, he claimed that he was being denied these medications by the authorities.[19]

The authorities were also reported to have "refused to provide him with a support for his knee as this contains metal and is classified as a security threat."[18]

On 7 January 2007, Al Hajj went on a hunger strike.[13] Al Jazeera's website published his demands which included:[14]

• The right for detainees to practice their religion freely and without duress.
• Applying the Geneva Convention to the treatment of Guantanamo detainees.
• Releasing a number of prisoners from isolation confinement, and in particular one Shakir Amer that has been in continued isolation since September 2005.
• Conducting a full and fair investigation into the deaths of three prisoners who died in June 2006.
• His release or trial by a federal US court.

Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel of Reprieve, a London-based human rights group representing Al Hajj, visited the cameraman at Guantanamo Bay on February 1. U.S. military officials declined to confirm whether Al Hajj was among the 12 detainees on hunger strike at the time.[20]

On 22 August 2007, Clive Stafford Smith told Reporters Without Borders that he had found Al Hajj's health had seriously deteriorated since his last visit.[21] He said that Al Hajj looked more frail, and visibly had trouble concentrating.

On 10 September 2007, Clive Stafford said that Al Hajj was focused on the worry that he would be the next captive to die and losing his ability to speak English.[22]

On 11 September 2007, Al Jazeera reported that Al Hajj was suffering from depression and losing the will to live.[23]

By 19 October 2007, Al Hajj had lost over 55 pounds since beginning his hunger strike in January.[24]

On 26 April 2011, a classified file from Guantanamo on Al Hajj's detention was released by WikiLeaks.[25][26] The file, dated 4 April 2008, describes Al Hajj as a high risk detainee with "direct ties to Al-Qaida, al-Haramayn non-governmental organization (NGO) and Taleban leadership."

According to the file, Al Hajj "admitted shipping supplies and carrying funds to Chechnya" but had "not been forthcoming regarding his activities in support of terrorist organizations as reported by other sources." The file said that he had been "careful not to implicate himself as a member of an extremist organization, or to have had any dealings with extremists beyond performing interviews as a journalist."[25]

Among the reasons for Al Hajj's transfer to the facility, the file listed:

To provide information on ... the al-Jazeera News Network's training program, telecommunications equipment, and newsgathering operations in Chechnya, Kosovo, and Afghanistan, including the network's acquisition of a video of UBL [Usama Bin Laden] and a subsequent interview with UBL.[25]

al-Hajj at the 2008 Global Investigative Journalism Conference .

On 15 August 2007, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State stated of Al Hajj's case:[30]

Asim al-Haj (aka Sami el Hadj) is being detained at Guantanamo Bay as an enemy combatant in the armed conflict with al Qaida, the Taliban, and their affiliates and supporters. Consistent with the law of armed conflict, the United States is entitled to hold enemy combatants until the end of hostilities, to prevent them from returning to the battlefield.

Mr. el Hadj has been found to be an enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal. Under the Detainee Treatment Act, Mr. el Hadj, like all detainees at Guantanamo, has the right to challenge that determination in U.S. federal court.

The United States does not want to detain anyone any longer than is necessary. Mr. el Hadj's detention is reviewed at least annually by an Administrative Review Board to evaluate the need for his continued detention, including an assessment of the threat he poses to the United States and its allies. Through that process, the Deputy Secretary of Defense has so far determined that he should remain detained at Guantanamo Bay.

We defer to Department of Defense on any additional questions about the scheduling of detainees' Administrative Review Boards and other details about this process.

We will not put detainees or our operations at risk by discussing the possibility of transfers or releases before they take place.

On the same day, Ali Sadiq, an official of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, stated:[31]

Last month, we received a memorandum from the US administration to the effect that they are considering Al Hajj's case and will hand down a final decision this month ... Based on this memo, we confirmed to the US administration in writing that Sami al-Hajj is an average Sudanese citizen with no extreme religious affiliations, he practices the religion like all other Sudanese citizens, and that in case he is released he will under no circumstances pose any threat to US security.

Sami Al Hajj was released on 1 May 2008 from Guantanamo Bay and flown to Sudan. He arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on a US military plane in the early hours of Friday, May 2. Al Jazeera showed footage of him being carried into the hospital on a stretcher, looking frail but smiling and surrounded by well-wishers.[32]

Upon release, al-Hajj announced his intention to sue George W Bush and other leaders involved in his detention at Guantanamo Bay.[5] He co-founded the Guantánamo Justice Centre as part of these efforts. In a later interview, he claimed that the organisation received no external support.[33]

He returned to work for Al Jazeera after his release, leading a new section covering civil liberties and human rights.[34]

On January 29, 2021, the New York Review of Books published an open letter from al-Hajj, and six other individuals who were formerly held in Guantanamo, to newly inaugurated President Biden, appealing to him to close the detention camp.[35]

• Hunger strike
• Guantanamo force feeding

Media related to Sami al-Hajj at Wikimedia Commons

• From Guantánamo to Desk at Al Jazeera, The New York Times, December 22, 2009
• Amnesty International case sheet
• Aljazeera Guantanamo inmate 'abused', Al Jazeera, June 22, 2005
• Aljazeera interview with lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith, Al Jazeera, October 26, 2005
• Robert Fisk interview about Sami mp3 download
• Sami al-Haj: the banned torture pictures of a journalist in Guantánamo Andy Worthington
• An interview with Sami al-Haj, former Guantánamo prisoner and al-Jazeera journalist Andy Worthington
• Sami al-Haj: "Torture is terrorism" Andy Worthington