Sami Mohy El Din Muhammed Al Hajj (), aka Sami Al-Haj (Khartoum, Sudan, February 15, 1969) is a Sudanese journalist for the Al Jazeera network. In 2001, while on his way to do camera work for the network in Afghanistan, he was arrested by the Pakistani army and held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba for over six years. After his release, al-Hajj wrote a book titled Prisoner 345. He was released without charge on May 1, 2008. He later attempted to launch legal action against George W. Bush.
Al Hajj's case was portrayed in a documentary titled Prisoner 345 by Al Jazeera producer Ahmad Ibrahim.
Background
Al Hajj was arrested in Pakistan on December 15, 2001. 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".
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.
Stafford Smith stated of his client that:
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.
In January 2007, Al Hajj and several other inmates went on hunger strike in protest of their treatment in Guantanamo, during which Al Hajj lost over 55 pounds. In response to the hunger strike, Al Hajj and the other inmates were force-fed. 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.
Interrogation
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:
Health and hunger strike
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. In letters from the detention camp, he claimed that he was being denied these medications by the authorities.
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."
On 7 January 2007, Al Hajj went on a hunger strike. Al Jazeera's website published his demands which included: 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.
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. 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.