On 5 February, a court in South Ossetia sentenced Giorgi Giunashvili to 20 years in prison on charges of terrorism and sabotage. Giunashvili was arrested in July 2016.
According to South Ossetia’s de facto authorities, Giunashvili was a part of a ‘Security Group’, controlled by the Georgian special services. He is accused of being responsible for a grenade explosion in 2007 in the village of Khelchua, located in South Ossetia; for an attack on South Ossetia’s military in 2008; and for participating in the August 2008 Russo-Georgian War.
The State Security Service of Georgia released detailed information about Giunashvili’s case to appeal to the international community.
The South Ossetian authorities regularly detain people crossing the border between South Ossetia and the rest of Georgia. A day after the sentence was handed down, on 6 February, a 48-year-old man, Jimsher Tielidze, was arrested for crossing border. He is from the village of Zerti, right on the dividing line. After being detained, border guards took him to Tskhinvali, South Ossetia’s capital.
In 2016, Tielidze was detained for the same reason, and only after paying a ₽2000 ($34) fine, was he released.
Manana Tielidze, the spouse of the arrested man, claims that her husband was on Georgian controlled territory, in the village of Kirbali. She also claims that the family is socially vulnerable and will not be able to pay a fine if one is demanded.
According to Georgia’s Public Defender, there are 11 people wrongly imprisoned in South Ossetia. Some, are accused of spying and have been held since 2008. Two of these are women. Before being detained, these people had maintained communications with and visited relatives living across the dividing line.
A father and son were sentenced to 2, and 2 and a half years in jail on 2 August by an Abkhazian court for ‘illegally crossing the border’.
Archil Rogava, 59, and Paata Rogava, 25, were arrested on 6 April by authorities in Abkhazia.
A spokesperson for Georgia’s State Security Service confirmed the sentences to OC Media saying that they ‘will take all measures to get these people released using all mechanisms of negotiations’. The court’s decision was ‘clearly illegal’ she added.
Rogava
Family members of father and son Archil, 59, and Paata, 25, Rogava, who were arrested on 6 April for allegedly crossing into Abkhazia, have continued their protests. On 26 April, they blocked the Enguri (Ingur) Bridge, which leads to Georgia’s de facto border with Abkhazia. Georgian police arrested Darejan Rogava, Paata Rogava’s sister during the protest.
According to Channel 1, relatives of Rogavas organised a human chain across the bridge, demanding that the Georgian government take step
Family members of father and son Archil Rogava, 59, and Paata Rogava, 25, gathered at the de facto border with Abkhazia on 13 April for the second time, after the pair were arrested on 6 April for allegedly crossing into Abkhazia. The family members are gathered at the Enguri (Ingur) Bridge, according to Intepressnews.
Relatives say that the men were detained on 6 April while they were looking for a lost horse, but that they did not cross the border. The relatives claim that border guards for
On 5 March, the de facto government of Abkhazia closed two of the three remaining checkpoints between Abkhazia and Tbilisi-controlled territory — the Khurcha–Nabakevi (Bataiguara) and Orsantia–Otobaia (Bgoura) crossings.
The Abkhazian government amended the law on the state borders in March 2016, reducing the number of checkpoints ‘in order to better control the border’ as well as raising fines for ‘illegal border crossing’.
The law came into force in April 2016, a month after being ad
On 5 February, a court in South Ossetia 
