TBILISI, DFWatch – The de facto authorities in South Ossetia said she suffered a heart attack and had to be sent away to Russia for treatment.

But now opposition leader Alla Dzhioyeva denies she had a heart attack at all. She says her injuries were caused by physical and verbal abuse by militiamen for the Ossetian acting president.

Dzhioyeva’s story is told in a long interview with the Ossetian opposition webpage Osetia.kvaisa.ru.

“Fortunately, I do not have a stroke or heart attack. I just went through a monstrous mockery – both physical and moral,” she says, adding that several people at the headquarters were also beaten and given 15 days detention.

“One grabbed my arm, the other by the legs, lifted and dragged me like an overripe melon,’ she remembers, ’I felt bad – of humiliation, from what I saw, from the screams. I began to lose consciousness. Realizing this, they do not put me down, no, but carrying my arms and legs they threw me down on the floor.”

The webpage has published a photo of Dzhiyeva with bruises on her right arm.

Now, she has recounted what happened during the attack in an open letter to acting president Vadim Brovtsev. At the night of February 9, an investigator came by her office. She writes that this happened at 18:30. The investigator brought her a summons that she was being called as a witness to be interrogated regarding an attempt to break into the governmental building in late 2011.

“At the request to present the appropriate order was refused. The proposal to conduct an interrogation in a spare room was also rejected.”

That night the Russian and Ossetia media reported about the attack. Some of the oppisition leader’s supporters say that in a couple of minutes around fifteen people in masks and camouflage fatigues broke into the building, and apprehended Dzhioyeva and several of her supporters. The opposition leader had a heart attack and was transferred to the Tskhinvali hospital.

A South Ossetian opposition leader has published an open letter to acting president Vadim Brovtsev, asking three questions about the events in the night of February 9, when masked militia broke into her headquarters.

Alla Dzhioyeva promises to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

In her statement she asks Brovtsev who gave the order to attack her headquarters, destroy property and verbally and physically harass her and her colleagues.

‘I was dragged like a sack of potatoes,’ she writes, and asks why three people at her campaign office who had a heart disease were beaten.

The brutal treatment has only strengthened Dzhioyeva’s resolve. “Even the grave won’t stop me,” the opposition leader says as an answer to a question from the opposition webpage about whether she will continue to insist on the recognition of her election victory when her health improves.

Dzhioyeva is adamant that the rescheduled elections on March 25 will be illegal.

“I warn you that as a citizen of Russia I will draw all perpetrators, including yourself, to court in Russia, and if it will be necessary – in Strasbourg,” the opposition leader writes in her appeal to the acting president Vadim Brovtsev.

The acting president of the de facto republic stated that the situation and events happening around Dzhioyeva is within the frames of the law.

He said there are forces that want to destabilize the situation in the region.

“We will actively oppose this,” he added.

But Dzhioyeva maintains that she won last November’s run-off election and expects to be recognized as the legitimate leader.

“Finally, what did I violate? What is exactly my fault and the faults of my supporters, 56.7 % of the voters in South Ossetia?” Dzhioyeva asks.

Preliminary results from the South Ossetia presidential elections in November gave her a clear victory over Kremlin favorite Anatoly Bibilov.

However on November 30 the region’s de facto Supreme Court annulled the results and scheduled another election for March 25, 2012.

Dzhioyeva’s supporters reacted to the court’s decision by starting a series of protests on the square in front of the government building. After several violent incidents, an agreement was reached December 10 between her and the former de facto president Eduard Kokoity.

But Dzhioyeva withdrew from the agreement because the other party didn’t come through on several issues. She again refused to take part in the new election in March and unilaterally planned to hold an inauguration ceremony on February 10, although authorities did not approve this.