Tbilisi initiates emergency meeting in Ergneti
The State Security Service of Georgia has called for an emergency meeting to be held today by the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) in Ergneti to examine the death of Georgian citizen Archil Tatunashvili as well as Levan Kutashvili and Ioseb Pavliashvili who were detained. Questions concerning the release of Tatunashvili’s body to Georgia. In addition, the transfer of Kutashvili and Pavliashvili from Tskhinvali to Georgia will also be discussed.
Tatunashvili, Kutashvili and Pavliashvili were detained on 22 February 2018 by representatives of the de-facto authorities of South Ossetia. According to the Ossetian authorities Tatunashvili died on 23 February in a Tskhinvali hospital due to heart failure.
According to the Committee for State Security of South Ossetia, he supposedly fought in 2008 on the Georgian side and in doing so participated in committing genocide against the Ossetians.
The department claims that Tatunashvili refused to respond to questioning and while being transferred to his cell, he resisted officers and tried to take one of their weapons.
The head of Georgia’s Akhalgori region, Nugzar Tinikashvili, told the Pirveli TV channel that Tatunashvili often went to the South Ossetian side to sell fruits and vegetables.
Tskhinvali claims that Kutashvili and Pavliashvili have already been released.
“The detainees are residents of Leningori (Akhalgori). They were released the day before yesterday and returned home. Their passes have been suspended until the circumstances have been clarified. Kutashvili and Pavliashvili are not accused of anything so far, but soon they will have certain questions put to them, given that they were with the deceased,” stated Murat Jioyev, the representative of the President of South Ossetia.
