The information that citizens of the Republic of South Ossetia Giorgi Valiev, George Zaseev and Joseph Kochiev, illegally detained by law enforcement agencies of Georgia in 2005 and convicted on trumped-up charges to life imprisonment by the Georgian authorities, January 26 went on hunger strike, has caused great concern in South Ossetia.
Taking into account that the multi-day hunger strike, the fourth in recent years, can seriously affect their health, the Office of the Plenipotentiary Presidential Envoy of the RSO for post-conflict settlement appealed to the EU Observer Mission in Georgia and the International Committee of the Red Cross with a request to inquire into the state of health of these citizens, and to inform the South Ossetian side.
South Ossetian party has constantly raised the question of the release of Valiev, Zasseev and Kochiev at the Geneva discussions, the MPRI meetings and other international forums with the participation of representatives of South Ossetia and Georgia.
South Ossetian side has repeatedly proposed to release the prisoners on a reciprocal basis, but there is not yet any understanding by the Georgian side in this humane gesture.
