UPDATED: Georgian citizen kidnapped by occupants released

Georgian citizen Elizbar Mestumrishvili, 77, who was detained by Russian-controlled border guards near the occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) yesterday in the village Jariasheni of Gori municipality, has been released Georgia’s State Security Service has confirmed.

Earlier, locals said the illegally detained individual, who was herding cattle on territory controlled by Georgia, had been taken to Tskhinvali.

The report by Georgia’s State Security Service says that 126 Georgian citizens were illegally detained by Russia-controlled border guards last year at the Georgia-breakaway Tskhinvali occupation line and 52 others at the Georgia-occupied Abkhazia so-called boundary line.

In most cases detainees are released after paying a fine for which amounts to about $30.