(DF Watch.)
TBILISI, DFWatch–A court in South Ossetia has sentenced a Georgian man to 20 years in a Tskhinvali jail for ‘sabotage and terrorist activities’.
49 year-old Giorgi Giunashvili, a native of the village Disevi inside the breakaway region, was arrested by Tskhinvali forces in June, 2016 for illegally crossing the de facto border.
THe secessionist security service, called ‘KGB’, announced that Giunashvili has taken an active part in ‘activities controlled by a Georgian illegal armed group, known as a self-defence group’ in the village Disevi.
The service also claimed that Giunashvili was suspected of setting off a hand grenade in 2007, according to Ekho Kavkaza, the Russian language service of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Breakaway authorities also accused the detainee of having participated in Georgian “gangs” in August 2008, during the Russo-Georgian war, which attacked a patrol of the Tskhinvali Defence Ministry, which was patrolling the area around the village Disevi. As a result, one soldier was killed, another was seriously injured, South Ossetian authorities claimed.
Family of the detainee ask the government of Georgia, the United States ambassador to Georgia, the EU Monitoring Mission and other international organizations to take appropriate measures and to immediately release the illegally detained person.
Georgia’s State Security Service called the court decision illegal and a fabrication.
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