Tskhinvali Releases Three Georgian Teens

The authorities in breakaway South Ossetia released on Saturday three Georgian teenagers, two detained on November 4 and one – in early July.

Levan Khmiadashvili and Viktor Buchukuri, 17 and 16 years old, respectively, both from the village of Tirdznisi were detained in the vicinity of Tskhinvali on November 4 together with two other Georgian teenagers. Two of them – Giorgi Romelashvili and Aleko Tsabadze, both 14 years old – were released on December 2 as a result of mediation of Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg. On the same day Tbilisi released five Ossetian men.

Giorgi Archvadze, who at the time of his detention in July was 15 years old, was also released as a result of “pardoning” issued by breakaway region’s leader Eduard Kokoity.

Commissioner Hammarberg, who again arrived in Georgia this week, was in Tskhinvali on December 19. Russia’s official human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, was also there.

The news about the release of three Georgian teenagers was first reported in Georgia by a press office of Georgia’s former PM Zurab Nogaideli’s opposition party Movement for Fair Georgia, linking the release with, as it put it, “successful” talks between Nogaideli and the breakaway region’s leader Eduard Kokoity in Tskhinvali earlier on December 19.

Nogaideli accompanied the released teenagers over the administrative border. Commissioner Hammarberg was also there. He told journalists in the village of Ergneti at the administrative border that efforts would continue to release other persons remaining in detention on the both sides. Nogaideli told journalists in Ergneti that the decision of Kokoity to release the three teenagers was “very important and right”.

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