The New York Times on the Rally Held in Support of Abducted Georgian Doctor

The New York Times has published an article on the rally in support of Georgian doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili held on December 15, a month after he was sent to two-month pretrial detention “for deliberately crossing the border” of the occupied Tskhinvali region.

The demonstrators gathered near the Republic Square in central Tbilisi and went to the village of Odzisi close to the occupation line. 

As the participants of the rally explained, one of the main purposes of the demonstration was the Ossetian people to hear their voices and demands. 

“Hundreds of Georgians rallied on the boundary with breakaway South Ossetia on Sunday to demand the release of a prominent doctor who was detained after crossing into the region, controlled by Russia since a 2008 war," reads the article written by Margarita Antidze, titled 'Hundreds of Georgians Demand Release of Doctor Detained in Separatist South Ossetia.'

"Vazha Gaprindashvili, president of Georgia's Association of Orthopaedists and Traumatologists, was taken to South Ossetia's regional center Tskhinvali on Nov. 9 and given two months of pretrial custody by separatist authorities, who said the doctor had crossed illegally into the territory.

"Hundreds of people including Gaprindashvili's relatives, colleagues, politicians and civic activists gathered on Sunday at the administrative boundary line in the village of Odzisi demanding Gaprindashvili's release.

"Some held posters saying 'Freedom for Doctor Vazha!' and 'Love for the Motherland is not a crime.'"

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said last month the doctor's detention "highlights the alarming situation of human rights violations in the occupied territories.”

Read the full article here

By Ana Dumbadze

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