De Facto Abkhazia sentences two Georgian citizens to jail
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, April 27
The so-called court of Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia has sentenced two Georgian citizens - a father and a son, Archil Rogava (53) and Paata Rogava (25) - to two months in jail.
The information was released by the Abkhazian state-led news agency Apsnypress on April 24.
The report says that the detained men have been charged with crossing occupied Abkhazia’s administrative border illegally, and they are both in pre-trial detention cells.
Apsnypress reports that Archil and Paata Rogava were detained on April 5 by the officers of the so-called Gali District Security Committee and Russia and Abkhazia's border department.
“During the detention operation, Paata Rogava resisted when being detained by the officers and kicked a stone into a border guard's face,” the article reads.
The relatives and family members of the detained men held a protest rally at the Enguri Bridge near the Administrative Boundary Line of Abkhazia.
The protesters demanded the immediate release of the detained and blocked the road.
Georgian law enforcers called on the protesters to clear the way but the demonstrators refused, and a small confrontation took place between the protesters and the law enforcers.
Darejan Rogava, a sister of the detained Paata Rogava, was arrested for resisting police officers and was taken to Zugdidi Police Department.
The other protesters remain at the scene and plan permanent rallies until the detained are released. They say the government is doing nothing to help the arrested men.
Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has released a statement regarding the detention of Darejan Rogava, saying she was detained on charges of minor hooliganism and resistance to the police.
