Working group created to help release abducted Georgian doctor
The Russian controlled de facto Tskhinvali authorities have demanded the Georgian doctor admit to ‘crossing the border’ which the doctor refuses to do. Photo: freedom for doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili Facebook page.
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A working group has been created by the family of well-known Georgian doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili to help organize his release after he was abducted by Russian-controlled occupation forces on November 9, 2019.
The working group will be coordinated by the director of the National Library of Georgia, writer Giorgi Kekelidze, and will include public relations specialists and active members of the public, the family has stated earlier today.
The group will be in “permanent cooperation” with state agencies, diplomatic corps, international organizations and the public “to take concrete steps towards the release of the doctor” from the Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region of Georgia.
The group will also organise “symbolic rallies against the abduction to remind the public about the importance of the issue,” the family said.
The family has announced that at 7 pm today, writers, members of the Georgian church and ethnic minorities, members of the Council of Religions and the Council of Religious Minorities at the Georgian Public Defender’s Office will gather at the National Library in Tbilisi to protest the abduction and illegal conviction of the doctor.
Gaprindashvili was illegally sentenced to one year and nine months in prison on December 20, 2019 “for deliberately crossing the border.”
Gaprindashvilli refuses to admit to “crossing the border,” saying that Tskhinvali is part of Georgia and is now occupied by Russia.
De facto President of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region Anatoly Bibilov says that the sentence of well-known Georgian doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili to one year and nine months in prison is “a fair punishment.”
Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani and UN Under Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo have spoken about the abduction of well-known Georgian doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili and his illegal sentencing to prison by the Russian-controlled de facto Tskhinvali in a phone conversation, the Georgian Foreign Ministry reported earlier today.
The family of well -known Georgian doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili, who was abducted by Russian-controlled occupation forces on November 9 and was illegally sentenced to one year and nine months to prison “for deliberately crossing the border” last week, has addressed the diplomatic corps in Georgia ‘to spare no efforts’ in achieving the release of the doctor.
The court in Georgia’s Russian-controlled Tskhinvali region has sentenced a well-known Georgian doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili to one year and nine-months to prison for “deliberately crossing the border,” despite a large-scale local and international campaign for the release of the abducted doctor. The information has been released by head of Georgia’s Bar Association David Asatiani.
Well-known Georgian doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili, who was sentenced to one year and nine months in Tskhinvali prison, was released today. The State Security Service of Georgia reported that he is now on Tbilisi-controlled territory now.