Security Service: 178 Georgians illegally detained for crossing occupation line in 2017
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Georgia’s State Security Service (SSS) has released its annual report today, listing the country’s biggest security issues and challenges to face in 2018.
The report says that 126 Georgian citizens were illegally detained by Russia-controlled border guards last year at the Georgia-breakaway Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) occupation line and 52 others at the Georgia-occupied Abkhazia so-called boundary line.
The individuals were detained for the "illegal crossing of the border” and many of them were released shortly after paying a fine.
The report released today reads that Russia and de-facto leadership of Abkhazia closed two so-called checkpoints in 2017, which "significantly complicated” the movement of people from the occupied region to Tbilisi-administered territory.
The SSS also reported that the rights of local Georgian citizens to receive a residency permit in occupied Tskhinvali were severely restricted, and that Georgian students in the region were partially deprived of the right to study in their native tongue. The deliberate destruction of Georgian-owned homes was also listed as a critical issue.
"The harsh criminal situation and absence of international monitoring missions in the occupied territories are among the primary challenges the breakaway regions are facing currently,” the SSS stated in its report.
A Georgian citizen has been released from illegal detention near the occupation line separating the Russian occupied region of Georgia - Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) from the rest of Georgia.
915 individuals have been illegally detained for allegedly crossing the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) between Georgia and its breakaway Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) since 2010.
514 people were detained last year, which is 11 percent less compared to 2016. In total, the detainees have paid 827,000 Russian Rubles (around $14,615) as a fine and only afterwards were they released.
Two Georgian citizens Ioseb Gundiashvili, 40, and David Gerkeuli, 30, were detained late yesterday by Russia-controlled border guards near Adzvi village in Gori municipality, the State Security Service of Georgia has confirmed today.
The head of Georgia’s State Security Service Vakhtang Gomelauri stated in parliament today that the threat of terrorism remains low in Georgia.
Gomelauri told lawmakers that in 2017 the State Security Service managed to prevent terrorist acts, referring to two recent large-scale anti-terrorism raids in Georgia.
Russia-controlled border guards have detained two Georgian citizens today near the Bershueti village of Gori municipality at a church on territory which is administered by Tbilisi.
Genadi Bestaev, illegally detained by the Russian occupation forces in November 2019 for 'illegally crossing the border and possession of drugs', has been sentenced to three years in prison by the so-called Tskhinvali court, reports the State Security Service of Georgia.