Georgia accuses South Ossetia of kidnapping four persons

Four residents of Georgia were kidnapped today by an armed criminal grouping in the Karel District of Georgia near the administrative border with South Ossetia. This was reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia, while its South-Ossetian counterpart, in its turn, has refuted this information.

The MIA of Georgia has reported that at the village of Kodi armed persons stopped a car with Georgians and kidnapped four passengers. Later, the kidnappers released two hostages and took the rest of them deep into the territory of South Ossetia and claimed a ransom of 6000 euros, the "Gazeta.Ru" reports.

Vladimir Dzhugeli, head of the regional police of Shida Kartli in Georgia, has stated that the Ossetian party should unconditionally release the kidnapped persons, although the Georgian law enforcers cannot say when the kidnappers will make this decision, as the "Georgia Online" reports.

However, South Ossetia has completely denied this information. "The MIA of South Ossetia has no data about any kidnappings, this information is nothing more than another provocation of the Georgian party," said Vitaly Gasstiev, head of the criminal militia of South Ossetia.