Georgian journalist Nana Lezhava and cameraman Levan Tetvadze of Rustavi 2 television were released on September 8 after spending four days under the arrest in the Russia?s North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz.
?The Georgian journalist Nana Lezhava and cameraman Levan Tetvadze have already been released. They are on their way home,? charge d’affaires of Georgia to Russia Temur Gamtsemlidze said in a telephone conversation with the Rustavi 2 TV company on September 8.
Nana Lezhava and Levan Tetvadze of Tbilisi-based Rustavi 2 TV company were arrested by the North Ossetian police, while covering developments in the terror-stricken town of Beslan. Both were accused of illegal crossing the state border. The court in Russia?s North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz sentenced them to pre-trial detention.
However, the Rustavi 2 claimed that the journalists had been registered as residents of Georgia’s Kazbegi district in northern Georgia and were therefore free to enter Russia without visa, under a Georgian-Russian agreement.