Sami Al Hajj thanks Amnesty International members

  • Published on 1/07/2008
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Egyptian journalists calling for Sami's release © AP

Sami Al Hajj, the 39-year-old Sudanese Al Jazeera cameraman who had been held in US custody since December 2001, was finally been transferred back to Sudan from Guantanamo in May 2008.

We wish to thank everyone who wrote a letter to Sami, which we recently forwarded to him.

Sami told us that he received 10,000 letters while he was in Guantanamo and apologised that he was not able to reply to each of you individually. He told us that when he received the first letter he knew he was part of the Amnesty International movement. He asked us for the following message to be relayed to all Amnesty International members. Please circulate this message to all groups and members who campaigned on his case.

"Myself, my son Mohammed and my wife Asma thank all Amnesty International members for supporting me and for supporting human rights. We will work hard with them together until we achieve peace for all people in the world. I will never forget their help and I will pray for them. I ask them to keep praying for me also. I will be glad if they continue their relationship with me, are in touch with me in my life and help me with my new job."

Sami was held without charge at the Guantanamo Bay prison for almost six years. He now has a new job with al-Jazeera where he will be working as a News Producer on Liberties and Human Rights Affairs.

We will remain in contact with him and will be exploring ways in which we can support him and work with him in the future.

Thanks again to everyone for your campaigning on this case!

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