A South American airline has alerted its employees to be on the lookout for a member of the “Uruguay Six” that was released from Guantanamo Bay in December 2014.
The Associated Press reported Monday that Colombia-based Avianca Airlines issued the heads-up to personnel about Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab internally, but no other details from the company were available. The Syrian refugee, also referred to in the media as Abu Wa’el Dhiab, is one of a half-dozen former Gitmo detainees Uruguay accepted a year and a half ago, after Diyab went on a long hunger strike and challenged the military’s remedies for dealing with him in court.
There’s been speculation that he traveled to Brazil, but the Brazilians have no record of his entry. A former Uruguayan foreign minister told the AP that Diyab had informed friends in Montevideo that he was headed to the Brazil-Uruguay border, where there is a Muslim community, during Ramadan.
However, there’s been no confirmation or update—and the U.S. Embassy in Uruguay said last week that American, Brazilian and Uruguayan authorities were collaborating to locate Diyab.
Stephen F. Hayes wrote about the developments and backstory behind Diyab and his cohort last week:
Read more from Hayes here, as well as a December 2014 story from Thomas Joscelyn after the detainees’ release here.
