PM: Gov’t Does Its Best to Release Georgian Woman Detained by Occupants
Prime Minister of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze has released a statement regarding the abduction of a Georgian woman Maya Otinashvili, mother of three small children, by occupant forces of breakaway South Ossetia (Tskhinvali).
“The relevant government agencies have been deploying all the tools and mechanisms within their capacity and communication channels round the clock to have our citizen released. A hotline has been activated and international organizations are being kept informed,” the PM stated.
He instructed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia to personally meet officials of international organizations and diplomatic corps and provide detailed information on the occurrence.
"We need to do our best to make sure that our citizen is returned to her family," PM added.
Maia Otinashvili, 37, detained by so called border guards at the occupation line near Gori municipality village Khurvaleti on September 29, was sentenced to pre-trial detention for “illegally crossing the border.”
Georgia’s State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, says that she met the representatives of the diplomatic corps in Georgia and informed them about the incident.
Earlier, she noted that the European Union Monitoring Mission and International Committee of the Red Cross had also been informed about the case.
“We are doing everything we can to get our citizen home. All possible mechanisms have been activated…We are dealing with an illegal fact. Three underage children are waiting for their mother at home. They have had quite a hard life even before this incident because they live near barbed wire fences of the occupation line,” the Minister stressed.
According to the State security Service (SSS) of Georgia, Otinashvili has been sentenced to a 10-day imprisonment, adding the information that she was ordered 2 month detention turned out to be inaccurate. The SSS added they received the information via the hotline.
By Thea Morrison
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Georgian Woman Detained by Occupants Sentenced to 2 Months in Prison