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Al Jazeera's al-Hajj has been held in Guantanamo
without charge for five years [AFP] |
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A Sudanese member of parliament is taking up the cause of an Al Jazeera cameraman imprisoned by the US at Guantanamo Bay for the past five years.
Farouq Abu Issa has asked the Sudanese foreign ministry to say what measures are being taken to save the life of Sami al-Hajj, who recently began a hunger strike.
Abu Issa, a representative of the National Democratic Alliance bloc, has asked Sudan's foreign ministry to outline what steps his office plans to take to secure al-Hajj's release.
Al-Hajj is a Sudanese national. Abu Issa said: "Sudan is required to protect him and secure his personal safety."
Without charge
The Sudanese cameraman was working for Al Jazeera on a documentary during the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Al-Hajj was arrested on December 15, 2001, on the Afghan-Pakistani border by Pakistani intelligence and then handed to the US military in January 2002.
He was moved from one prison to another before ending up in the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has been detained without trial since 2002.
He has not been officially charged or informed of the reason for his arrest and subsequent incarceration.
Abu Issa asked the interior ministry to make public the steps it has taken to arrange for the "immediate release of Guantanamo prisoners in general, and Sudanese prisoners in particular, or at least taking them to a fair court if they have violated the law".
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| Al-Hajj recently began a hunger strike |
Abu Issa talked of what he called "injustice, suppression and mistreatment" that the Sudanese prisoners are enduring in Guantanamo.
Al-Hajj, who has been held for more than five years as an "administrative prisoner", recently began a hunger strike "in protest against his detention, risking his life", Abu Issa said.
Before he was transferred to Guantanamo, al-Hajj was held in other US-run jails in Bagram and Kandahar in Afghanistan.
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