Ravil Mingazov was born in Russia in 1967. He became a ballet dancer with several dance troupes. Conscripted into the Russian Army at the age of 19, he first served in the Army ballet troupe. After his conscription ended in 1988, he served voluntarily until 1996 and later returned to the military in the food supply section, where he took over a program that was in bad shape and transformed it into a model program, “the best in all the Army's.” In recognition of his achievement, he said that the General gave him a watch.

Saifullah Paracha, 62, is a Pakistani national.  He traveled to the US to study when he was 26 years old and remained there with his family for approximately 10 years before returning to Pakistan to set up an export business.

Paracha was scheduled to fly to Thailand for a business meeting on in July 2003, but when he arrived at the Bangkok airport on July 6, he was seized, hooded, and cuffed, thrown into the back of a vehicle and taken to an unknown location where he was held for a few days, blindfolded, with his ears covered and his hands and legs cuffed.