US releases all Guantanamo prisoners' names, one prisoner is Azerbaijani

List released by the Pentagon contains the names of 558 men from 41 countries who were assessed by military tribunals at the camp. Around 490 detainees remain in Guantanamo Bay now. The majority of those under detention are from Saudi Arabia (132), Afghanistan (125) and Yemen (107), the list shows. It is reported that seven Russian citizens arrested by US military forces in Afghanistan were held in Guantanamo. They were handed over to Russia in 2004.

The list of detainees also includes seven Uzbekistanis, five Tajikistanis, three Kazak and one Azerbaijani. Ravil Mingazov, whose name is also in the list, is shown as Russian citizen. The Pentagon considers that all these detainees had direct or indirect links with the Taliban or al-Qaeda. All of the detainees face charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism.

The 29-year-old Azerbaijani detainee of Guantanamo was captured by US forces in Mazari-Sharif, Afghanistan. He is reported to have been detained in November, 2001 and held in Guantanamo since January, 2002. It is also reported that he left for Afghanistan to join the Taliban in 1999. As a Taliban member, he worked for one of the food supplying groups of the movement. He is also reported to have been trained in a training centre of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The Azerbaijani named as Masud by the Pentagon refuted reports on his links with terrorist groups, and said he was in Afghanistan to learn the holy Koran and Arab perfectly, APA reports.