KHARTOUM, Sudan — An Al-Jazeera cameraman was released from American custody at Guantanamo Bay and returned home to Sudan early yesterday after six years of imprisonment that drew worldwide protests.

Sami al-Haj, who had been on a hunger strike for 16 months, grimaced as he was carried off a U.S. military plane by American personnel in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. He was put on a stretcher and taken straight to a hospital.

Al-Jazeera showed footage of Mr. Haj being carried into the hospital, looking feeble and with his eyes closed, but smiling. Some of the men surrounding his stretcher were kissing him on the cheek.

“Thank God … for being free again,” he told Al-Jazeera from his hospital bed. “Our eyes have the right to shed tears after we have spent all those years in prison. … But our joy is not going to be complete until our brothers in Guantanamo Bay are freed,” he added.

“The situation is very bad and getting worse day after day,” he said of conditions in Guantanamo. He claimed guards prevent Muslims from practicing their religion and reading the Koran.

“Some of our brothers live without clothing,” he said.

The U.S. military says it goes to great lengths to respect the religion of detainees, issuing them Korans, enforcing quiet among guard staff during prayer calls throughout the day. All cells in Guantanamo have an arrow that points toward the holy city of Mecca.

Mr. Haj was released along with two other Sudanese from Guantanamo yesterday. He was the only journalist from a major international news organization held at Guantanamo and many of his supporters saw his detention as punishment for a network whose broadcasts angered American officials.

The military alleged he was a courier for a militant Muslim organization, an allegation his lawyers denied.

Mr. Haj said he believed he was arrested because of American hostility toward Al-Jazeera and because the press was reporting on American rights violations in Afghanistan.

Mr. Haj was detained in December 2001 by Pakistani authorities as he tried to enter Afghanistan to cover the American-led invasion. He was turned over to the U.S. military and taken in January 2002 to Guantanamo Bay, where America holds some 275 men suspected of links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, most of them without charges.

Reprieve, the British human rights group that represents 35 Guantanamo prisoners including Mr. Haj, said Pakistani forces apparently seized Mr. Haj at the behest of the American authorities who suspected he had interviewed Osama bin Laden.

But that “supposed intelligence” turned out to be false, Reprieve said in a news release.

[Also yesterday, President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority underwent a heart procedure in Jordan to check for blood vessel blockages, but no problems were found and he was promptly discharged from the hospital.

Mr. Abbas planned to return to the West Bank on Friday and quickly resume work. But the treatment drew attention to the Palestinian Arab leader’s delicate health history, and the Palestinians’ lack of a succession plan at a sensitive time of peace efforts with Israel.]