Comment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Ossetia

June 14 saw Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office investigating the case of Archil Tatunashvili bringing charges against two members of law enforcement agencies of the Republic of South Ossetia and urging the South Ossetian citizens to come to the police department of the neighboring state.

Alongside with this shill articles, in which representatives of Georgian law enforcement agencies, having violating the presumption of innocence of citizens of other state, claim of the alleged complicity of Alik Tabuev and David Gurtsiev in the “illegal detention, tortures and murder of the citizen of Georgia”, have regularly been repeated across Georgian media.

As it has been multiply times stated by the South Ossetian party, the death of Georgian citizen Archil Tatunashvili was caused by acute heart attack, which was the result of ischemic heart disease. This fact was confirmed both by the preliminary expertize as well as by independent Russian colleagues. The file has been closed by the authoritative agency of the Republic of South Ossetia.

Without any doubt, the Georgian party, trying to gain political dividends, is blindly using the notorious case in whipping up tensions to the detriment of common sense, the norms of civilized interstate dialogue and the principles of international legislation. Alongside with this the authorities of Georgia are trying to distract attention of its people from running internal problems with help of idle tricks.

The Republic of South Ossetia is a recognized sovereign state, which acts in accordance with its own legal framework and does not fall under the jurisdiction of neighboring Georgia.

It’s naive to expect that representatives of law enforcement agencies of the Republic of South Ossetia, who fulfill their duties in strict accordance with the laws in force on the South Ossetian territory, would rush at a word into arms of Georgian police.

The international community should better pay attention to the fact that the Georgian side is shamelessly using this rather sensitive issue, related to the death of Tatunashvili, at the time of the Geneva Discussions, which are held these days. Attempts to use the death of the Georgian citizen in Tskhinval in making sweeping accusations against the Republic of South Ossetia are made at this platform as well. However, the South Ossetian delegation has once again presented its substantial position regards those groundless accusations.

In this relation we take the actions of the Georgian side as a heavy-handed interference into the internal affairs of a sovereign state and consider inadmissible conscious manipulation and cynical use of the tragedy of the family of Tatunashvili in escalating tensions about South Ossetia.

 

June 20, 2018, Tskhinval

 

20.06.2018