Zaza Gakheladze’s father refuses to visit South Ossetia

The Patriarchate of Georgia appealed to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia with a request to help in the release of Zaza Gakheladze and asked the convict’s father not to visit the territory of South Ossetia.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that according to the KGB of South Ossetia, on July 11, 2020, Zaza Gakheladze opened fire during his detention and fired several times at border guards. They opened fire in return, wounded him to his leg, and then detained him. Relatives and fellow villagers of Zaza Gakheladze, a citizen of Georgia wounded by South-Ossetian border guards, doubted the version that he used a hunting rifle to fire at the border guards. On February 5, the Supreme Court (SC) of South Ossetia sentenced Zaza Gakheladze to twelve years and six months of imprisonment in a case on illegal border crossing and an attempt on the life of a law enforcer.

At the request of the Patriarch of Georgia, a father of Zaza Gakheladze refused to move to the territory of South Ossetia. According to Mikhail Gakheladze, the decision was changed at the request of the Patriarch and his family. “At the request of the Patriarch and my family, I will no longer go to the occupied territory. The Patriarchy has prepared a letter addressed to the Russian Patriarch (the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, – note of the ‘Caucasian Knot’),” said the father of Zaza Gakheladze as quoted by the “Georgia Online”.

According to Mikhail Gakheladze, the Georgian authorities are not making proper efforts to release his son. “The authorities have leverage, but they are still inactive. For almost a year there has been no result,” the “InterPressNews” quoted Mikhail Gakheladze as saying.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 23, 2021 at 01:21 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.