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All six inmates had been recommended for release since 2009 but could not be returned to their countries because of security threats there.

Each of the inmates, including Diyab, has been vocal about living in Uruguay since being resettled there. The former inmates have complained about a lack of financial support from the government and initially even refused to get jobs.

The missing Diyab reportedly told his friends that he’s going on a religious retreat for Ramadan and they would not be able to reach him for weeks. As a refugee in Uruguay, Diyab has the right to legally travel.

Diyab’s friends and supporters portrayed him as someone who is physically impaired — needing crutches to walk. They believe he is simply praying and meditating somewhere and will resurface soon.

Jon Eisenberg, a lawyer representing Diyab in an effort to make public videos of his force-feeding during hunger-strike protests at Guantánamo, said he spoke to him on June 5. Diyab said that he would be incommunicado until a week after Ramadan, and that the priority his client put on those legal efforts was “quite inconsistent with the notion of simultaneously making himself a fugitive,” Eisenberg said.

Belela Herrera, a former deputy foreign minister for Uruguay who has been part of Diyab’s support network, said he also told her he would be gone until a week after Ramadan. She said it would be an odd time for him to become a fugitive because his wife and children from Syria are about to join him in Uruguay.

“I expect him to come back because his family is ready to join him,” she said in an interview. “He said he is going to relax and cut off all communications — and he hasn’t taken a mobile phone or anything at all — to prepare himself for the arrival of his family.”

Either way, it appears that the Uruguayan authorities did lose track of Diyab and that he may have crossed into Brazil, at least temporarily.

Brazil has been in contact with intelligence agencies in the U.S. and Uruguay to find Diyab.

The 2016 Olympic Games are set to begin on Aug. 5 in Rio de Janeiro.

With files from The New York Times