US interrogators at Guantanamo asked Sami Al Haj the same question 125 times during his six-year detention without trial: “What were al-Jazeera’s links to al-Qaida?”

Speaking to the Guardian, Al Haj’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said his client had been confused for another man called Sami, a cameraman who filmed an interview with Osama bin Laden in October 2001.