MOSCOW, March 13 (RAPSI) – Washington has yet to notify Russia about the arrest of a Russian national known as Irek Hamidullan in Afghanistan in 2009 on suspicion of fighting for the Taliban, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said.

Konstantin Dolgov, the ministry’s Special Representative for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website on Wednesday that Hamidullan was reportedly detained by coalition forces in Khost in 2009.

“We have not received an official notification of this Russian national’s arrest from our American counterparts,” he said. “Attempts by the Russian Embassy in Kabul to visit Hamidullan have not succeeded.”

According to Dolgov, Russian representatives have visited the military base in Bagram where Hamidullan is believed to be held, “but were told that he did not want to meet with them.”

The Washington Post wrote in December 2013 that Irek Hamidullan, a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, deserted and became a member of the extremist organization At-Takfir val-Hijra.

In 1999 he reportedly went to Afghanistan with 17 volunteers he recruited and participated in battles against US troops, which were brought into Afghanistan in 2001. In particular, he is suspected of participation in several attacks on US troops in 2009, as a result of which several people were killed and wounded.

According to the Washington Post, US officials said that they have discussed the case with Moscow but that the Russians displayed little or no interest in his return. Sources in the White House said that no official decision has been made yet and that all possible options are under consideration.