The South Ossetian side is inviting human rights activists and organizations to visit the Georgian citizens detained in the prison in Tskhinval, reported the HR Commissioner of South Ossetia David Sanakoev, commenting on the fact of detention of and trial over Georgian citizens. According to Sanakoev, Georgian authorities are politicizing the detention and trial of Georgian citizens Levan Khmiadashvili and Victor Buchukuri. "Politicizing of this issue is unacceptable. We are inviting Georgian human rights activist to visit the Georgian citizens. Human rights related issues should not be drawn into political dimension. In majority of cases, the Georgian authorities consider them exactly within a political dimension. One of the examples is the above mentioned case", stated Sanakoev. Earlie, the South Ossetian authorities invited the convicts' relatives to visit them in the prison.
"As of now, the South Ossetian side has not received any requests from the relatives about their willingness to visit the convicts", noted Sanakoev.
David Sanakoev reiterated that the detention conditions for all the convicts and those under investigation are the same, no matter if these are citizens of Georgia or South Ossetia.
The above mentioned Goergian citizens were detained by the South Ossetian law enforcement bodies possession of explosives, as well as for having committed a theft in South Ossetia. At the trial on 2 December in Tskhinval, Romelashvili and Tsabadze were sentenced to 1 year of probation and released from the courtroom, while Khmiadashvili and Buchukuri were sentenced to 1 year of penal colony.
