Two Georgian citizens illegally detained by occupation forces released

Zaza Megrelishvili and Tamaz Gogichashvili, two Georgian citizens illegally detained near central Georgia’s Russian-occupied village of Lopani by occupation forces on December 15, 2021 were released on Friday, the State Security Service of Georgia said.

Both the “hotline” mechanism and other tools at the disposal of the Central Government were actively used in the process of releasing illegally detained persons from illegal imprisonment.

The issue of the release of the mentioned persons from illegal detention was regularly discussed in the format of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM), and the information was constantly provided to the co-chairs of the international discussions in Geneva and international partners.

The Central Government continues to work actively for the release of other illegally detained Georgian citizens, both in the Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) and Abkhazia.

Illegal detention of Georgian citizens by the Russian-controlled occupation forces for “illegally crossing the border” has become a practice along the administrative boundary since the Russia-Georgia war of 2008 and the subsequent occupation of the Tskhinvali and Abkhazia regions.