915 Georgians Detained for “Illegal Crossing of South Ossetia Border” since 2010
915 Georgian citizens have been detained crossing the boundary into Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia(Tskhinvali) based on data from Georgia’s State Security Service(SSS). In 2010 Russia’s occupant forces detained 77 Georgians. They detained 140 in 2011 and 108 in 2012. Then in 2013 139 and another 142 in 2014. In 2015 163 were detained, in 2016 - 134, and so far in through February 21st of this year 12 citizens have been detained.
On February 28, occupant forces illegally detained Kakheber Kisishvili from Plavi, Gori near the occupation line. He has already been taken to Tskhinvali's pre-trial detention facility. The occupants have contacted the man’s family, demanding payment of 2,000 Russian rubles as a fine for the release.
Although Georgia always raises the issue of illegal detentions of Georgian citizens living near the occupation lines of Tskhinvali and Abkhazia regions at the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meetings, the number of illegal detentions gets larger each year.
by Thea Morrison