Translated material
Heroin and propaganda
Tbilisi and Sukhumi exchange Georgians
Tbilisi and Sukhumi yesterday decided to exchange prisoners. Georgia, on the basis of a procedural agreement, released the head of the administration of the village of Bargebi in the Gali region of Abkhazia, Fridon Chakaberia, while maintaining a suspended sentence for him for a period of five years. The chairman of the Georgian parliamentary commission for the restoration of territorial integrity, Shota Malashkhia, said that the Georgian side made concessions by releasing Chakaberia: “World practice knows cases when even terrorists were released from prison in exchange for the lives of innocent people.”In the Gali region of Abkhazia, approximately 60 thousand spontaneously returned Georgians now live - this is two-thirds of the Georgian population who lived here before the armed conflict of 1992-1993. Chakaberia helped them establish ties with the Abkhaz authorities, which, as they say in Sukhumi, Tbilisi did not like. Chakaberia regularly visited Western Georgia on business, where he was arrested in December 2006 after half a gram of heroin was found in his pocket. In February he was sentenced to ten years. Abkhazians called the accusation “fabricated.”
Chakaberia was released on the very day when the trial of three Georgian students detained in the Gali district on March 1 of this year was supposed to begin in Sukhumi. Levan Gochava, Iver Korshia and Koba Rigvava called on the Georgian population of the unrecognized republic to boycott the parliamentary elections in Abkhazia, which were held on March 4. In Sukhumi they regarded this as propaganda against the state system. The students faced imprisonment for a term of seven to eight years.
Foreign Minister of the unrecognized republic Sergei Shamba told Vremya Novostey that “the liberation of Chakaberia was a good opportunity for further negotiations on the fate of the students.” He said that he discussed the Chakaberia problem with the Georgian permanent representative to the UN, Irakli Alasania, and he “had to convey Sukhumi’s position to the top leadership of Georgia.” The trial of the students will begin on April 27. The Abkhazians will probably eventually release the detainees, unless an additional circumstance interferes: Abkhazia demands that Tbilisi also release an official of the Gali district administration, David Sigua, who was kidnapped by unknown assailants in March. Georgian Sigua headed the precinct commission for the parliamentary elections in the unrecognized republic.