Ombudsman Raises Two Akhalgori Residents’ Case with CoE Human Rights Chief

Georgian Public Defender, Sozar Subari, requested Council of Europe human rights commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg, to look into the case of two Georgian citizens detained by the breakaway South Ossetia’s authorities for “treason.”

Tamar Charaeva, 59, and Givi Chigoev, 55, were arrested on March 4 and sent to pre-trial detention this week. Both face charges in “treason and an attempt to overthrow the government with use of force.”

The charges are related with their links to the Tbilisi-based South Ossetian provisional administration. Charges against them and number of other persons – including head of the provision administration, Dimitri Sanakoev, – were initiated in 2006 for their role in organizing so called ‘alternative elections’ in the region. Chigoev has been working for the provisional administration recently and Charaeva is a school teacher in Akhalgori.
 
The Georgian Public Defender said in a letter sent to the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, that charges against the two persons are groundless, including from the legal point of view. Subari says that both Charaeva and Chigoev are citizens of Georgia “so it is absurd that they are charged in treason based on the Russian Federation’s law,” used by the breakaway region’s authorities, “and moreover in 2006 Russia was not recognizing South Ossetia’s independence.”

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