Five persons detained on Georgian-South-Ossetian border

The Special Troops of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) detained four members of the NGO "Free Zone", namely: Onise Gergedava, Lasha Rukhaya, Vazha Morgoshiya and Soso Mindiashvili on suspicion of disobeying the police. Later, the police announced detention of five persons.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 11 the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) accused Russian border guards and South-Ossetian authorities of capturing a part of the territory of Georgia and a part of the pipeline Baku-Supsa. The border marks were installed in the territory of South Ossetia, near the villages of Tsinagar and Orchosan, 50 meters off the border, the South-Ossetian party asserts.

A car from the motorcade of the "Free Zone" was detained by policemen under the overpass of the central highway, where it moved out aiming to proceed further to the border. Policemen said that the travel there is banned. Activist Lasha Rukhaya asked to show the document that bans travels to the occupation line. In response, policemen said that they had no document, but the travel to the border is prohibited.

Suddenly, some unidentified persons in civilian clothes arrived, who launched a scuffle with "Free Zone" activists. The police arrested several activists, but did not touch the attackers.

Koba Khabazi, the leader of the "Free Zone", treats the incident as a provocation staged by the police.

"Five persons were detained for disobeying the police," said a female employee of the press service of the MIA of Georgia. Lasha Khuskivadze, an activist of the "Free Zone", is also among the detainees, the "News-Georgia" reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.