S.Ossetian Official Sentenced to Custody

Georgian police arrested Vazha Khachapuridze in the South Ossetian conflict zone on April 1.

Vazha Khachapuridze, an aide to South Ossetia leader Eduard Kokoiety and deputy Chief of Administration of the breakaway region’s capital Tskhinvali, was sentenced to two-month pretrial custody on April 3.

Khachapuridze, who was arrested by Georgian police on April 1 near the village of Ergneti in the South Ossetian conflict zone, was accused of smuggling cigarettes.

The South Ossetian Press and Information Committee denied on April 3 these allegations as “fabricated” and condemned the arrest of Khachapuridze, an ethnic Georgian, as “a crime against those respected people in the conflict zone whose peacekeeping activities are not in line with the militaristic aspirations of Georgia’s current leadership.”

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