Occupants detain Georgian woman near occupation line

Georgian citizen Maia Otinashvili, 37, has been illegally detained by Russian-backed so called border guards in the village of Khurvaleti, Gori municipality, near the occupation line of Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

Villagers say that Otinashvili was near the administrative boundary line when the armed individuals detained her and transported in the direction of occupied Tskhinvali.

It is not always obvious where the occupation line is demarcated as Russian occupation forces keep changing the so-called borders which is informally referred to as a "creeping occupation”.

The EU Monitoring Mission has been informed about the detention and the hotline enacted to gather information about the location of the kidnapped woman.

Kidnapping is a common crime in the Russian occupied region of Tskhinvali, though many cases go unreported because families prefer to pay the ransom with the help of a go-between in order to keep their kidnapped relatives safe.

The situation is similar in Georgia’s other Russian-occupied region of Abkhazia.