Georgian Journalists Sentenced to Pre-Trial Detention in Vladikavkaz

Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Merab Antadze said on September 6, that the court in Russia?s North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz sentenced journalist of Rustavi 2 television Nana Lezhava and cameraman Levan Tetvadze to pre-trial detention. Both are accused of illegal crossing the state border.

?They will be in the pre-trial detention before the Border Guard Department of the Russian Federal Security Service do not find out the details of crossing the border [by Nana Lezhava and Levan Tetvadze],? Merab Antadze said, however could not specified the exact period of pre-trial detention.

Meanwhile a group of Georgian journalists held a protest rally on September 6, outside the Russian embassy in Tbilisi demanding immediate release of Nana Lezhava and Levan Tetvadze.

Rustavi 2 television claims that both were arrested because of their ?professional activity? in terror-stricken North Ossetian town of Beslan. ?They had all the documents, necessary for crossing the [Russian-Georgian] border and for making coverage of the developments in Beslan,? the statement issued by Rustavi 2 reads.

However, the law enforcer officials in North Ossetian say that Nana Lezhava and Levan Tetvadze had no Russian visa and special accreditation, issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry to the foreign journalists working in Russia.