Today in the framework of mutual release and exchange of prisoners, on the Abkhaz-Georgian border, citizens of the Republic of South Ossetia Georgi Zaseev, Joseph Kochiev, Georgy Valiev and Boris Turashvili were handed over to representatives of the South Ossetian authorities.
The procedure was attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia Kazbulat Tskhovrebov, RSO Ambassador to Armenia Oleg Botsiev, official representatives of the Republic of Abkhazia.
In response, several Georgian citizens, imprisoned in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, have also been released.
Georgi Zaseev, Joseph Kochiev, Georgy Valiev were sentenced to life imprisonment in Georgia in 2005 on trumped-up charges of committing a terrorist act in the Georgian town of Gori on 1 February 2005. Boris Turashvili was sentenced to a long term of imprisonment, also on false charge of kidnapping the Georgian MP.
The release of the citizens of South Ossetia was held in cooperation with the Abkhaz side and in accordance with the agreements reached in the format of the Geneva discussions, as well as between the President of the Republic of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov and President of Abkhazia Raul Khajimba.
President Leonid Tibilov, respecting the requests of parents of the unlawfully convicted in Georgia citizens of the Republic of South Ossetia and feeling compassion for their fate, was giving moral and material support to the families of the convicted. In December 2014 he pardoned a citizen of Georgia Dzherapov, convicted in South Ossetia, in anticipation of a retaliatory move by the Georgian authorities.
The President also sent a letter to the co-chairs of the Geneva discussions with the appeal as mediators to assist in the mutual release of prisoners.
The arrival of the released citizens in Tskhinval is expected on Friday, March 11th..
