Georgian citizen released in South Ossetia

Hamlet Margvelashvili, detained by security forces in the Znaur district, has been released and handed over to the Georgian authorities. In August, 46 violators were detained at the border, the South Ossetian KGB reported.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" reported, on September 9 it became known that in the Znaur district of South Ossetia (near the village of Zemo Khviti in the Gori municipality of Georgia), security forces detained a Georgian citizen, who, according to them, illegally crossed the border. The man said that he wanted to visit relatives in the village of Isak-kau.

Georgian citizen Hamlet Margvelashvili, who was detained on September 8 near the village of Zemo Khviti, has been released and is in the territory controlled by the central authorities of Georgia, Interpressnews reported with reference to the country's State Security Service.

Margvelashvili was "expelled from" South Ossetia on September 15 "with penalties," the South Ossetian KGB clarified on its website. "It was established that the said violator, in a state of alcoholic intoxication, unintentionally crossed the South Ossetian-Georgian border in the vicinity of the village of Znaur in the Znaur district," the publication says.

According to the department, 46 violators were detained in August "at various sections of the state border," including 21 border violators and 25 border regime violators.

Criminal cases were initiated against two of them

"The Border Service of the State Security Committee of the Republic of South Ossetia conducted investigations into 44 cases of violation of legal regimes. As a result, 30 violators were subject to administrative punishment in the form of a fine, eight were given preventive measures, four were expelled from the RSO [...] without the application of penalties, and criminal cases were initiated against two. Investigations into two more cases are ongoing," the publication says. KGB, posted on September 16.

Recall that on June 7, the Georgian public defender published a report that in 2024, 70 people were detained on the demarcation line , of which 36 were on the border with South Ossetia, 34 on the border with Abkhazia, including two women and two minors. By the end of 2024, at least 14 people were imprisoned in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, who, according to the ombudsman, reported harsh conditions of detention.

In 2018, the Georgian Ministry of Justice filed a complaint with the ECHR "Georgia v. Russian Federation", which concerns the oppression of ethnic Georgians in the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, violations of the rights of residents of border villages and borderization. On April 9, 2024, the ECHR ruled that the Russian authorities violated the rights of Georgian citizens by establishing a demarcation line.

This ECHR decision has political significance, but its practical implementation is possible only in the distant future, Georgian analysts noted.