May 03, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 26, 1429

KHARTOUM, May 2: 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 in the Guantanamo Bay prison.

There were “many violations … (we were) deprived from praying and there were ... deliberate insults to God’s holy book” 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 check-up.

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.

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.

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.

The Reporters Without Borders (RWB), which has campaigned for Haj to be freed, expressed relief.

“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,” said secretary-general Robert Menard in a statement released in Washington.

The RWB said Haj had been tortured and subjected to some 200 interrogation sessions. In January last year, he launched a hunger strike and was force-fed on several occasions, the group said in a statement.

According to his lawyer, Clive Stafford-Smith, Haj has lost some 40 pounds, and was suffering from intestinal problems and subject to bouts of paranoia, the organisation added.

Haj’s brother, Issam, has called for him be examined by an international medical team, saying he suffers from back- and knee -aches and his sight has deteriorated.—AFP