Shamba Comments on Arrest of Georgian Filmmakers in Abkhazia

Foreign Minister of breakaway Abkhazia Sergey Shamba described the arrival of three Georgian filmmakers in Abkhazia as a provocation, Apsnypress news agency reported on March 6.

He said that their arrival and their filming had nothing to do with the Orthodox Churches in the breakaway region. “They had very different motives,” the Abkhaz Foreign Minister added.

Abkhaz security service arrested Tea Sharia, Tariel Sokhadze and Teimuraz Eliava from the youth organization “Art Salon”, who were touring Abkhazia to film Georgian churches, on March 1.

“It is naive to suppose that the filming of railway bridges and stations is linked with religious monuments,” Shamba said.

Apsnypress also reports that these Georgians, who were taken into custody in the Abkhaz capital, Sokhumi, have already been visited by the UN observers from the Human Rights Office on March 6.

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