US releases another Sudanese from Guantanmo

October 10, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – US Defense Department said Wednesday it had released this week a new Sudanese detainee from the prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Mustafa Ibrahim Mustafa Al Hassan, who arrived Tuesday in Khartoum, vowed to campaign for the freedom of 255 inmates remaining at the famous prison.

Al-Hassan said he saw soldiers throw a Quran into the dirt during his confinement, part of what he called “all types of tortures” at the Navy base in Cuba.

“The torture would never stop until you say you have participated in the war against the Americans,” he said at a news conference in Khartoum.

Al Hassan was accused of supporting the Taliban and going to Pakistan on his way to fight in Afghanistan. He denied that, saying he went there in December 2001 to study and trade clothing.

Al Hassan said he was arrested as he tried to leave because he could not get his visa renewed, according to transcripts of U.S. military hearings.

There are several hundred detainees at Guantanamo. The first prisoners arrived nearly six years ago after the United States began what U.S. President George W. Bush called a war on terror in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. cities by bin Laden’s al Qaeda network in 2001.

(ST)