Reports: Hostage Escapes Captors in South Ossetia

The Georgian media reported on August 26 that Gocha Jarmelashvili, who was kidnapped by unknown men in late July in the South Ossetian conflict zone, managed to escape.

Regional police in the Shida Kartli region confirmed that Jarmelishvili is now free, but no details are given, as Jarmelishvili has not yet made an official statement.

But Jarmelashvili  did give an interview to Imedi television, in which he said that he was held by his captors in a hole. ?I cannot say where it was? They [captors] were speaking with me only in Russian? They did not tell me why I was kidnapped and I still do not know why it happened? I was left alone and managed to escape. I spent two days on the road [before reaching his house],? Jarmelashvili said.

The whereabouts of 11-year-old boy Geno Petriashvili, who was kidnapped in the South Ossetian conflict zone on August 19, as well as four other Georgian men who have been missing in the conflict zone since June 6, remain unknown.

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