Two Georgian citizens illegally detained by Russian occupation forces released

Two Georgian citizens illegally detained by Russian occupation forces near central Georgia’s Gori municipality were released on Friday, the State Security Service of Georgia said.

Sergo Gugutishvili and Tamaz Kakhabrishvili had been arrested in Koshka village, adjacent to the administrative boundary line separating the Government-controlled territory from the occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region.

The Service said it had used the hotline designed for information exchange along the line and “all mechanisms at the disposal” of the Government had been actively used in the process of releasing the detained persons from unlawful 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, and the information was constantly provided to the co-chairs of the international discussions in Geneva and international partners.

The European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia was also “directly involved” in the reaction to the incident, it added.