Another Georgian released from unlawful imprisonment in occupied Abkhazia

Giorgi Lukava was handed over to the Georgian authorities earlier today at the Enguri Bridge, a crossing point between the occupied region and the rest of Georgia. Photo by Lukas Sniolis
Agenda.ge, 28 Dec 2017 - 17:39, Tbilisi,Georgia

Another Georgian citizen who had been illegally detained in Georgia’s Russian-occupied region of Abkhazia has been released from jail.

Manuchar Tsushbaia was released today after he was detained for so-called "illegal border crossing” by occupation forces in September.

Tsushbaia was sentenced to four months in prison in the occupied region.

The Georgian side had raised the issue of his illegal detention multiple times at Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meetings, which are OSCE and EU co-facilitated format of dialogue between the occupied regions and the rest of Georgia.

Earlier this week, another Georgian citizen, Giorgi Lukava, was freed from jail in breakaway Abkhazia who was unlawfully sentenced to 20-year imprisonment. He was freed after serving almost seven years.

This came after one more Georgian, Giorgi Giunashvili, was released from a jail in another Russian-occupied region of Georgia – Tskhinvali (South Ossetia). He had also been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Tbilisi says these cases are the result of successful cooperation on humanitarian issues between the occupied regions and the rest of Georgia.