Friday, May 2, 2008

U.S. FINALLY RELEASES JOURNALIST SAMI AL HAJJ, LOCKED UP AT GUANTANAMO FOR OVER SIX YEARS, NO EVIDENCE AGAINST HIM

Finally, after six years, Sami al Hajj has been freed from his unjust detention and imprisonment at Guantanamo.

William Glaberson reports in today's The New York Times:

"A former cameraman for Al Jazeera who was believed to be the only journalist held at Guantánamo Bay was released on Thursday, after more than six years of detention that made him one of the best known Guantánamo detainees in the Arab world, his lawyers said.


"The detainee, Sami al-Hajj, became a cause in recent years for the Jazeera network, which often displayed his photograph and carried reports on his case.


"He was also one of Guantánamo’s long-term hunger strikers, and his lawyers at the British legal group Reprieve drew wide attention to what they said was his declining physical and mental health. "

I have previously posted on Sami al Hajj, noting how unfair it was that U.S. officials should keep him locked up without the slightest shred of evidence for his detention. See my post here on May 6, 2007, and here on July 29, 2007, and here on February 14, 2008.

Reports Glaberson:

"“It is yet another case where the U.S. has held someone for years and years and years on the flimsiest of evidence” without filing charges, one of the lawyers, Zachary Katznelson, said Thursday."

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