South Ossetian security forces accuse Georgian citizen of violating border

A Georgian resident was detained near the Artsev force. Official Tbilisi stated that the detention was illegal.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, in June brothers Tariel and Leonid Tenadze, detained by security forces near the demarcation line with South Ossetia in March, were released.

Employees of the Artsev Department of Internal Affairs detained a Georgian citizen who crossed the border of South Ossetia. According to the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of South Ossetia, the 33-year-old Georgian citizen was detained on the evening of August 17 while patrolling the territory of the village of Artsev. He was then handed over to representatives of the South Ossetian KGB, the Res news agency reported.

According to the Georgian State Security Service, the security forces "illegally detained a Georgian citizen near the village of Kveshi in the Gori municipality."

"Information about another fact of illegal detention was immediately brought to the attention of the co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussions and international partners. "All existing mechanisms have been used to release the illegally detained Georgian citizen as soon as possible," the statement posted on the SGB Facebook page said.

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

In 2018, the Georgian Ministry of Justice filed a complaint with the ECHR "Georgia v. Russian Federation", which concerns the oppression of ethnic Georgians in the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, violations of the rights of residents of border villages and borderization. On April 9, 2024, the ECHR ruled that the Russian authorities violated the rights of Georgian citizens by establishing a demarcation line. The ECHR decision has political significance, but its practical implementation is only possible in the distant future, Georgian analysts noted.