A South Ossetian resident has been convicted of treason.

A South Ossetian court sentenced a local resident accused of collaborating with the "Georgian side" to 12.5 years in prison.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in April, the South Ossetian KGB announced the detention of a 51-year-old state-owned enterprise employee on suspicion of treason. The man was arrested on charges of passing classified information to Georgian intelligence. The KGB issued warnings to five other residents of the republic based on his testimony.

The Supreme Court of South Ossetia has sentenced a resident of the republic, arrested on charges of treason. The case was heard behind closed doors.

The South Ossetian citizen was charged under an article of the Russian Criminal Code (Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code carries a sentence of 12 to 20 years in prison, and in certain cases, life imprisonment).

"He was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison and a fine of 100,000 rubles," the RES news agency quotes a court representative as saying.

The convicted man, 51, is a resident of the village of Sinagur in the Dzau (Java) district. He was accused of "collaborating with the Georgian side," but the details of the charge were not disclosed, Sapa Tskhinval reports.

Georgia considers Abkhazia and South Ossetia to be Russian-occupied territories after Russia intervened in the armed conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia on August 8, 2008, and subsequently recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Following this, the Georgian parliament voted to sever diplomatic relations with Russia, according to a "Caucasian Knot" report on the "Five-Day War.".