Creepy and scary. Thesw ar probably the words that best describe the testimony of Sami Al-Haji in Social Forum whom remains silent. You don’t’always have the opportunity to hear first hand the experiences from someone who has spent seven years imprisoned in Guantanamo. Sami came along with Alfonso Sanchez Ramirez, member of Amnistía Internacional, who helped to create a contextualization of the situation experienced in the prison, a place where human rights are constantly trampled and the ones that for so many years Amnesty International has been reporting without any governmental solution. We are dealing with the legalization of torture in a place that now has a total of 126 prisoners.

The words of this “crime against the human being” as the Sami Al-Haji himself describes it,reached into the crowds heart. He talked in first person some of the torture, both physical and psychological, he and his mates went through in this place called Guantánamo, where you do not have any rights, not even something as basic as deciding when to go to the bathroom or maintain contact with relatives. Sami calls it an impossible situation to stand so they can get anithing they want from anyone. And, despite everything, Sami has given forgiveness to those responsibles . He is an exception among all other prisoners who where not able to   keep their normal day a day after the Guantanamo experience. Sami Al-Haji continues work as a journalist fighting for something so basic but difficult in Guantanamo: Justice, freedom and, above all, that those responsible are prosecuted. May the errors be corrected and the injuries cured.

Asun Perez