Doha - Sami Al Haj, the Al Jazeera cameraman held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for more than six years, returned to the network's head office here to a warm welcome yesterday.
Al Jazzeera's Chairman, Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani; Minister of State H E Sheikh Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani; the network's Managing Director, Wadah Khanfar; and Sami Al Haj's colleagues were present at a welcoming ceremony organized by the channel.
Speaking on the occasion, Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer noted that Al Haj's detention had inspired the Al Jazeera management not to respond to any type of pressure against the channel and remain faithful to the principle of covering "opinion and counter opinion". The patience Sami Al Haj showed in detention empowered the channel to keep on the track of independent media, he said.
Wadah Khanfar heralded Al Haj's return as "a triumph of freedom".
Sami Al Haj said he was subjected to 200 interrogation sessions during his imprisonment, which lasted for 2,340 days. "They wanted me to spy against Al Jazeera as a condition for releasing me. Based on my faithfulness to independent media I rejected the offer," he said.
A recorded message from Clive Stafford Smith, Director of legal action charity Reprieve and Al Haj's lawyer, was telecast from Washington DC during the event. Smith noted that on the one hand he was happy for the release of Al Haj but on the other his legal team had lost an important ally inside the detention centre in Guantánamo Bay.
"He helped in providing a list of 64 teenagers detained in Guantánamo, which the US has denied continuously", he said.
"We, in Reprieve, are looking forward to cooperating with Sami to help not only release innocent prisoners but close that notorious detention centre," he added.
A speech by Tayseer Alouni, a journalist from Al Jazeera Channel under house arrest in Spain was also shown during the celebration. Alouni said that his joy at Al Haj's freedom had overwhelmed him to the extent that he had forgotten his own misery.
By Mohammed Saeed
© The Peninsula 2008
