Georgian police detains four citizens of South Ossetia

The authorities of Tskhinvali assert that the Georgian party has taken four citizens of the Republic of South Ossetia, who were coming back from Georgia, as hostages. The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has confirmed this information.

The State Committee for Information and Press of the Republic of South Ossetia (RSO) has informed that on July 20 at about 11:00 p.m. the Georgian party seized four RSO citizens - Soslan Siukaev, Gela Sanakoev, Zaur Khubaev and Alikhan Khubaev - as hostages. According to the press-service of the MIA, the detainees were returning to Tskhinvali from the Georgian city of Gori.

According to the spokesman of the Ossetian MIA, the Georgian party treated the capture of hostages to be an answer to detention of Georgian citizen Taimuraz Goginashvili, suspected of murdering Ossetian nationals.

According to the IA "News-Georgia", the Georgian MIA has also confirmed the fact of detention of four citizens of South Ossetia.

"Yes, we confirm the fact of detention of these persons. They were detained on suspicion of committing various crimes, including those connected with drugs," said on July 21 Shota Utiashvili, head of the Information-Analytical Department of Georgian MIA. No detailed information on the fact has been promulgated by the Ministry so far.