President Zurabishvili on Georgian Doctor's Detention

In respect to Vazha Gaprindashvili’s case, it is obvious that technical processes yield no results; they carry on sluggishly without sound judgement,- claims the President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili.

"With the case of Vazha Gaprindahvili, we are seeing bureaucrats who cannot make the rightful political decisions that we expect. Georgia is stuck in this ongoing technical process," the President said.

"We are working with the help of international associations. We have been trying to put the Geneva International Discussions into its initial political format. Days prior to the Normandy Format talks, I reminded the President of France to consider the case of Georgia, namely our present conflict regarding the imprisoned doctor and the never-ending issue of our occupied territories.

"For the first time, during the French-Georgian Dialogue, named after the legendary Georgian officer and national hero of France Dimitri Amilakhvari, France assessed the situation of Georgia in words that have never been used before,’ Zurabishvili stated.

Trauma surgeon Vazha Gaprindashvili of Tbilisi, detained in Tskhinvali for ‘illegally crossing the border’, was sentenced to 1 year and nine months in prison on December 20 by a de facto authorities in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia.

By Elene Dzebisashvili