A citizen of Germany was detained in Abkhazia by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers on May 22, the State Security Service of Georgia (SSG) told Civil.ge.
According to the SSG, “Russian occupation forces have illegally detained a citizen of Germany in village Pichori of the occupied Gali District, on charges of illegal crossing of the so called border.”
The SSG added that the Georgian side notified the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) about the incident, and that the SSG was “actively working to free the German citizen together with other agencies and international organizations.”
Local media sources in Abkhazia region, reported on the detention on Monday. “On May 22, 2017, in the area of Pichori village, a citizen of Germany, who said he was engaged in hiking tourism and was not aware of crossing the state border of the Republic of Abkhazia, was detained for illegal crossing of the state border from Georgia into the Republic of Abkhazia,” the press service of Russian FSB border guards was quoted as saying.
“For further procedural decisions the detained person was, according to established rules, transferred to the relevant agencies of the Republic of Abkhazia,” the press service said.
The Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) between the region of Abkhazia and the rest of the Georgian territory is under control of the Russian border guards answering to the Federal Security Service (FSB).