ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY INQUIRING INTO DETENTION OF SEVERAL ARMENIAN CITIZENS ON ARMENIAN-GEORGIAN BORDER

Arminfo Agency
2007-05-02 17:46:00

The Foreign Ministry of Armenia is inquiring into the reported
detention of several Armenian citizens on the Armenian-Georgian border.

The acting spokesman of the FM Vladimir Karapetyan says that the
Embassy of Armenia in Georgia is in contact with the Georgian
authorities and will inform the FM as soon as it gets any news.

To remind, the Georgian mass media reports that on May 1 eight
citizens, including six Armenians were detained for trespassing the
state border of Georgia.

Border guards of the regional department "Red Bridge" detained six
persons for the attempt to cross the state border of Georgia bypassing
the control point "Sadakhlo".

During the control it turned out that only two citizens had documents.

Namely, Arkadi Gambaryan had a passport of a citizen of Armenia,
Maariya Totikashvili had the identity card of a citizen of Georgia. The
rest detained citizens of Armenia Asmik Barsegyan, Albert Banaryan,
Sevadan Lalayan and citizen of Georgia Lasha Tumanishvili are charged
with trespassing of the state border of Georgia that envisages
imprisonment from 4 to 5 years.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the detainees.

On May 1 Georgian border guards detained two more citizens of Armenia
– Valiko Grigoryan and Alvard Alikyan who came t o Georgia illegally
from the zone of Georgian-Ossetian conflict.

According to the detainees, they came to the territory of Georgia
without passport control via Roki tunnel and Tskhinvali region.