Georgia bails two citizens of South Ossetia out

Georgia has released two citizens of South Ossetia, detained on July 20 at the police post in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone. Soslan Siukaev and Alikhan Khubaev were set free on bail of 4000 laris (3000 US dollars).

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Soslan Siukaev's relatives that the Georgian party accused them of transporting and storing drugs.

"Soslan has nothing to do with drugs. He is an educated person, a lawyer and a teacher at the South-Ossetian State University. How could he be engaged in drug dealing?" says Soslan Siukaev's wife; in her opinion, her husband could have been forced to testify against himself.

Two other Ossetians - Guram Sanakoev and Zaur Khubaev, who were detained by Georgian police on July 20 at the same check post near Eredvi village, were released on July 21.

Guram Sanakoev has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that at the Georgian police check post near Eredvi they were forced out of the taxi under pretext of rendering assistance to road accident victims.

"They told us that it was necessary to help people, that victims spoke the Ossetian language only, and they couldn't understand them. However, later we were brought to some headquarters and then to the station in the city of Gori. There, they accused me of drug dealing, and said that they knew it for sure. I tried to explain them that it was not the case, but they wouldn't listen. They asked what passport I had - Ossetian or Russian. Nothing else. For the whole night long we were kept there with no explanations. My wife and my child, who were with us in the taxi, didn't know, while we were in Gori, anything about us. We were not allowed even to give them a call," Mr Sanakoev said.