KHARTOUM (AFP) - Sudan's two main television stations went off the air for three minutes in solidarity with Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese cameraman detained since 2002 at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay.
Sami al-Haj of the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera was arrested by the Pakistani army on the Afghan border in December 2001 and has been held without charge at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba since 2002.
At exactly 10:00 pm (1900 GMT), the time of the main news bulletin, more than 2,000 staff of Sudan's state satellite television and semi-official Blue Nile TV as well as Omdurman Radio stopped work as they stopped broadcasting.
After the break in transmission, an announcer read out a statement.
"We are taking this move to protest the detention and draw the world opinion attention to the fact that Haj is being kept in custody for nearly six years ... We demand that Haj be immediately released or taken to court.
"We urge the Sudanese government to be courageous enough to address the US government for his release," the announcer said.
Also appearing on the screen, a woman who identified herself as Haj's aunt, said her nephew had been on hunger strike for the past two weeks. "We don't know what has happened to him," she said.
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