Moscow expects the eight Russian citizens being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be handed over to Russia soon for trial, a senior Russian diplomat said in comments published Monday.
| I'm all for it, as long as they shoot them... |
"We expect that in the nearest future, these citizens will be returned to Russia for trial," said Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov in an interview published on the Foreign Ministry’s Web site. Russia has been pushing for the extradition of its eight citizens, who are among hundreds accused of links to the Taliban or al-Qaida being held at the U.S. detention facility. Trubnikov said that at the end of last year, a "principal understanding" was worked out between Washington and Moscow about their return. He said that currently "coordination is underway about ’technical’ questions" such as the procedure for transferring the suspects. The Russian Prosecutor’s office has said that the detainees include residents of Russia’s Muslim-majority republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, western Siberia and the Caucasus Mountains region. |