Georgian Police Confirms Arrest of Four S.Ossetians

Georgian police have detained four residents of breakaway South Ossetia for the illegal possession of arms and drugs, Shota Utiashvili, head of the Interior Ministry’s Analytical Department, said on July 21.

Authorities in breakaway South Ossetia said the four Ossetian men had been detained by the Georgian side late on July 20, en route from Gori to Tskhinvali. The four men were “kidnapped” by Georgian law enforcement officers in response to the detention of a Georgian man, suspected of murder, by the South Ossetian militia, the South Ossetian Press and Information Committee has claimed. It also said that the Georgian side was demanding an exchange of detainees.

Utiashvili, however, denied that the arrests were linked with the earlier detention of the Georgian man.

“This [detention of four residents of the breakaway region] is purely a criminal case,” he told Civil.Ge.