Sami al-Hajj on death watch

The lawyer for a Sudanese journalist imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay went on al Jazeera television today to say that his client, Sami al-Hajj, is deeply depressed and may be close to death. The cause would be "passive suicide," because Hajj has been on hunger strike since Jan. 7 to protest being held by the U.S. military for more than five years without being charged. He would be the fifth inmate to die in Guantanamo.

I met Hajj's family in Khartoum in June and wrote about his case, which is well known in Sudan and among press freedom groups, but hardly at all in the United States. Hajj, 38, was a cameraman for al Jazeera and on his way to an assignment in Afghanistan in December 2001 when he was arrested by Pakistani authorities -- on a still unclear immigration violation -- and handed over to the U.S. military. A few months later he was sent to Guantanamo as an "enemy combatant."

His lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith of the British legal aid group Reprieve, which represents several Guantanamo prisoners, told al Jazeera that doctors and psychiatrists believe that Hajj may be the next inmate to die. Troops typically try to force-feed inmates on hunger strike with Ensure, a vitamin-fortified milkshake, but the process is so brutal that inmates don't often keep much of the food down.

When I spoke to Smith in July, he'd recently visited Hajj and said that he was withering away and suffering from depression. His condition appears to have gotten much worse in recent weeks, Smith said today. Hajj and Smith continue to push for a trial so that he can try to exonerate himself.

The Hajj that Smith described was a far cry from the happy romantic that his younger brother and sister remembered. Growing up in their hometown of Sinar, his brother Asim said that Sami would sometimes disappear for hours at a time, and he'd find him sitting alone with a camera by the side of a lake, taking in the view. Becoming an al Jazeera cameraman was the fulfillment of Sami's lifelong dream to work behind a camera, Asim said.

The U.S. military maintains that there's good reason to hold onto Hajj, stemming from work he did in Azerbaijan for a Muslim charity. But Smith said Hajj was little more than a bag man in that case, and that nearly all of the questions put to Hajj by military interrogators have revolved around whether his current employer, al Jazeera, has links to al Qaida.

The main reason that Hajj continues to be held, Smith said, is because the U.S. and Sudan have poor diplomatic relations and because the Bush administration distrusts Qatar-based al Jazeera. "If you work for the BBC, no matter what your nationality is, the British government intervenes on your behalf," Smith said. He urged the Qatari government to try to secure Hajj's release or push for a trial. Neither seems likely, and at this late stage it may be too late to save Hajj's life anyway.

Comments

[Sara Pursley]

The American Committee to Free Sami Al-Haj has just launched an online petition to the U.S. Congress demanding Sami’s immediate release and an investigation of the Bush Administration’s campaign against Al Jazeera.

Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/freesami/petition.html

[ubet]

Can the US sincerely preach to others about human rights abuse?

[Jerry]

A dead terrorist is a good terrorist.
I hope more join him.

[E-Nyce]

My-my, even the Internet is not safe from ignorance such as Jerry's.