10:46, 5 December 2020

Resident of Georgia arrested for trespassing South-Ossetian border

A court in Tskhinvali has arrested Mirian Taziashvili, a Georgian citizen, for two months on charges of trespassing the border. He could have been fined and released, but sentenced to arrest, the man's wife has complained.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 20, a citizen of Georgia was detained in the area of the demarcation line with South Ossetia. The Georgian State Security Service (SSS) has treated the actions of South-Ossetian law enforcers as illegal.

Mirian Taziashvili, 63, a resident of the village of Zardiantkari, was detained on November 20 near the Ossetian village of Khelchua. Under similar charges brought against them, citizens of Georgia are usually released 2-3 days after the payment of the fine, but this did not happen in Taziashvili's case, the Georgian Service of Radio Liberty reports.

Mirian's wife wonders why her husband has not been released for so long.

The State Security Committee of South Ossetia has stated that the reason for Taziashvili's crossing the border was "the extremely low living standard and the absence of basic subsistence means," the "Echo of the Caucasus" reports.

Residents of the Georgian villages bordering on South Ossetia are often detained and fined for trespassing the border; Georgian authorities treat such cases as kidnappings.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 4, 2020 at 05:27 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.