The head of the de-facto delegation of the occupied Tskhinvali region to the IPRM, Yegor Kochiev, confirmed that two Georgian citizens illegally detained on September 16 had been remanded pre-trial detention for two months and face up to five years in prison under Article 322 (3) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for attempting to remove a sign marking the so-called “border” of the occupied region.
Sergo Merabishvili and Iason Gengiuri got drunk and tried to remove the sign placed on the occupation line in the vicinity of the village Mejvriskhevi in the Gori municipality, while video taping themselves. They were illegally detained on the spot by the occupying forces. Earlier, there were reports in the Tskhinvali region that they had been released to the Georgian side, but the local news channel on Telegram reported that they are currently in pre-trial detention.
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