Bagapsh Refuses to Release Georgian Journalist

A Georgian journalist arrested by Abkhaz militia will be tried in accordance with Abkhaz law, Abkhaz leader Sergey Bagapsh told visiting High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour in Sokhumi on February 27. 

The Abkhaz side has charged the journalist with “illegally crossing the Abkhaz border.”

Malkhaz Basilaia, chief of Mze TV’s bureau in Zugdidi, was arrested at the Enguri bridge (dividing breakaway Abkhazia from the rest of Georgia) on February 26 as he was doing a story on the Russian presidential election in Abkhazia, Mze TV said. Voting in Abkhazia has already started for Russian peacekeepers and other Russian passport holders in the province.

Bagapsh also said that Georgian journalists and students had many times carried out what he called “provocative actions” inside Abkhazia, but had been released without charge.

“However, our good will gestures were rebuffed by Tbilisi and so from now on Georgia cannot count upon such actions,” Apsnypress news agency quoted Bagapsh as saying. He added that the journalist’s release was not open for discussion.

Georgian officials have already condemned the arrest and demanded the immediate release of the journalist.
 
“We categorically demand that the Georgian journalist be released. Naturally, we will use all relevant tools – both inside and outside the country – to avoid similar acts in future,” Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze told reporters on February 27.

“The kidnapping of anyone, especially a journalist doing his job, is a grave criminal offence, amounting even to a terrorist act,” Foreign Minister Davit Bakradze said.