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Foreign Ministry's Rights Commissioner to Visit Russian Inmate at Guantanamo Bay Prison

The entrance to Camp 1 in Guantanamo Bay's Camp Delta. Kathleen T. Rhem

The Foreign Ministry's human rights commissioner was scheduled to visit Guantanamo Bay prison on Friday to meet a Russian inmate who was captured in Pakistan along with other suspected al-Qaida fighters more than 11 years ago.

Commissioner Konstantin Dolgov, who was already in Washington, said that U.S. officials had approved the Friday visit, which is likely to be limited to one day, Interfax reported Thursday.

Dolgov earlier said that the "main idea" of his visit was to meet with Russian citizen Ravil Mingazov.

"We want to check up on his detention conditions, discuss his future fate, his return to Russia or other ways that could end his current 'rightless' situation," Dolgov said.

Pakistani police arrested Mingazov during a raid in 2002, according to Guantanamo files on the prisoner. Mingazov said he had received training at militant camps in Afghanistan.

In April 2013, the U.S. barred a Russian delegation from visiting Mingazov at the base in Cuba on the grounds that the prisoner had refused to meet them.

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