Scary. This is probably the word that best describes the testimony of Sami Al-Haji in a Social Forum which remains silent. And the fact is that you do not always have the opportunity to hear first hand the experiences from someone who has spent seven years imprisoned in Guantanamo. Sami is accompanied by Alfonso Sánchez Ramirez, member of Amnesty International, who helps contextualise the situation experienced in the prison, a place where human rights are constantly trampled. Those rights that Amnesty International has been reporting for so many years without any governmental solution. We are dealing with the legalisation of torture in a place that now has a total of 126 prisoners.

The words of this “crime against the human being” as Sami Al-Haji describes it, reach into the crowds heart. He recounts in first person some of the tortures, both physical and psychological, he and his mates went through in this place called Guantanamo, where you do not have any rights, not even something as basic as deciding when to go to the bathroom or keeping contact with relatives. Sami describes it as an impossible situation to stand, in such a way that they manage to drain anybodys strenght. And despite everything, Sami forgives. He is an exception among all other prisoners who have not been able to keep their normal daily life after the experience in Guantanamo. Sami Al-Haji continues working as a journalist, fighting for something so basic but difficult to achieve in Guantanamo, that is justice, freedom and above all, that those responsible are prosecuted. May the errors be corrected and the injuries cured.

Asun Pérez.