19 April 2022, 16:31
South-Ossetian law enforcers report detention of 20 border violators in a month
This March, a total of 20 persons were detained for violating the border; eight of them have already been fined; four others have been expelled from South Ossetia, the republic's State Security Committee (known as the KGB) has informed.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 4, the town of Ergneti hosted a sitting in the format of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms. Georgian delegates demanded an unconditional release of citizens of their country detained in South Ossetia. In its turn, the South-Ossetian party pointed to the destabilization of the situation caused by the appearance of a Georgian police post near the village of Uista (the Georgian name is Tsnelis).
Detentions of Georgian citizens have repeatedly been committed on the Georgian-South-Ossetian demarcation line. Thus, on December 29, 2021, two Georgian citizens were detained near the village of Gremiskhevi. Earlier, on December 12, Mamuka Chkhikvadze, a citizen of Georgia, was detained for crossing the South-Ossetian border near the village of Zemo Nikozi.
Thus March, a total of 20 violators of the law in the border area were detained on South-Ossetian border, the press service of the South-Ossetian KGB has informed. As a result, eight persons were fined; four others were expelled from South Ossetia.
The restrictions on crossing the Georgia's borders with Abkhazia and South Ossetia violate the rights of residents of border villages; they cannot farm and risk being detained, the human rights organization "Amnesty International" stated in 2019.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 19, 2022 at 10:49 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: Caucasian Knot
