Sami Hajj at Echorouk Forum: Americans used witchcraft and drugs against Guantanamo prisoners

Guantanamo former prisoner Sami Hajj said the detainees were deprived of all their rights and they were treated as animals or even worse.

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• “The most dangerous method which was exercised in Guantanamo was religious offence. “The holy Quran was torn and thrown in the toilet. The US investigators put their foot on the Noble Book and wrapped the prisoners with the Israeli flag to provoke them,” Sami Hajj told Echorouk Forum.
• “The Americans used witchcraft to torture the prisoners. One of them got haunted by a demon speaking French after his release though he has never spoken French,” he added.
• Al Jazeera’s cameraman said the prisoners were injected by drugs to oblige them to confess.
• “The war on terror launched by the Americans after the September 11th’s attacks was against Islam and Muslims.”
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• Algeria did not cooperate with US
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• Sami Hajj said 25 Algerians were detained in Guantanamo. Some of them were brought from Bosnia and others were bought from Pakistan. “The Algerians have nothing to do with the events and no one was arrested in fighting.”
• The former prisoner said many delegations from Arab countries came to the camp to help the US in sentencing the prisoners by giving them documents.
• “Algeria, Sudan and Syria were the only countries which did not deal with the US.”
• He also said Algeria did not sent its delegation only after three years since the camp was opened.
• He added that the Algerian prisoners wanted to come back home but the hard economic conditions and their fears of judicial prosecutions made some of them preferring joining other countries.
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• “I will not forget bravery of Algerian prisoners”
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• Sami Hajj said six guards tortured him in a barbaric way. “The Algerian prisoners were the first to help me. They asked me to tell them the name of those guards to take revenge. But I did not want to get them involved in troubles.”
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• Quran insult
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• The US soldiers insulted the holy Quran on purpose as they saw that the prisoners were protecting the Noble Book more than themselves. “They forced them out to search for the Quran in their cells and tear them,” said Sami Hajj.
• He added that the prisoners protested against that act and went on hunger strikes. “They refused to get out from their cells whatever the conditions were.”
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• Al Jazeera and Echorouk seal deal
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• Sami Hajj said Echorouk and the committee for public freedoms and human rights at Al Jazeera signed an agreement on expertise exchange and cooperation in defending freedoms and human rights.
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• Sami Hajj’s memories on Echorouk
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• Sami Hajj said he is about to finish writing a book on Guantanamo as an introduction of his memories in the camp. “They will be published on Echorouk newspaper as an acknowledgment of the role it played for my release.”