7 citizens of Georgia are under illegal detention in the Tskhinvali region occupied by Russian Federation.
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As Irakli Antadze, Deputy Head of the Information-analytical Department of the State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) said, SSSG received a message through the European Union hotline late at night on January 16 that a young man from Gori municipality was detained by the occupation forces. The detained is Soso Dvalishvili.
On January 3, 2023, two more people have been arrested. Sergo Gugutishvili and Tamaz Kakhabrishvili, residents of the village Koshka, are in the Tskhinvali isolation ward. They are accused of illegally crossing the so-called border. According to relatives, Gugutishvili and Kakhabrishvili were herding the goods on the pasture, when they got arrested by Russian soldiers.
On December 2021, in Gori municipality near Nikozi village Former military serviceman Mamuka Chkhikvadze was arrested. Along with illegally crossing the so-called border, he is accused of drug smuggling. In May 2022, the de facto court sentenced Chkhikvadze to 5.6 years in prison, which his local lawyer appealed and the illegal sentence was reduced to 3.8 years.
24-year-old Lasha Khetereli is displaced from Liakhvi valley and has relatives in the occupied territory. After the 2008 war, he lives in the Shaumiani IDP settlement. The representatives of the occupational regime arrested him for the sixth time in December 2021. Before that, in 2020, on June 30, he was arrested and served a one-year illegal sentence in Tskhinvali prison.
Kakhaber Natadze, born in 1977, was also appointed by the South Ossetian de facto security committee. He is accused of illegally crossing the border. on December 10, 2021, he was illegally arrested near the occupied village of Tsingari. Kakhaber Natadze is a resident of Gori.
Gela Iobashvili is a resident of Perevi village of Sachkheri municipality. In September 2022, the occupation regime arrested him. He is accused of illegally crossing the border and has been sentenced to prison.
According to the data of the State Security Service, in 2022, 13 citizens of Georgia were arrested in the region of occupied Abkhazia, and 42 citizens in occupied Tskhinvali region.
On February 16 of 2022 53-year-old Genadi Bestaev, a prisoner of Tskhinvali prison died. He lived in the village of Zardiaantkari. Bestaev's house stands on the dividing line and is in the so-called In the uncontrolled zone, which is located between the Georgian and Russian checkpoints. His family members live in Tskhinvali - his ex-wife, and children. In the past, Genadi Bestaev was arrested several times when he tried to visit his children in Tskhinvali. In 2021, on November 16, de facto authorities released Genadi Bestaev from prison. At that time, his health condition was already serious. The day before, he had a stroke in the prison, and his condition worsened even more in the Tskhinvali hospital. "Until he died, they did not spare him. I kept saying the same thing, but no one heard, neither here nor there," Naira Bestaev, Genadi Bestaev's sister, told Georgian News.
Two Georgian citizens are in illegal detention in occupied Abkhazia - Irakli Bebua, who was arrested in Gali district on September 30, 2020, for burning the Abkhazian flag, and 24-year-old Kristine Takalandze, who lives in the village of Nabakevi in the occupied Gali district, and who is accused of espionage on July 20, 2022.
