Russian Prosecutor General's Office welcomes Georgia's suing two Kistian separatists

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office welcomes Georgia's suing two Kistians /ethnic Chechens residing in Georgia/ detained in August by Georgian frontier guards among a group of Chechen separatists who crossed the Russian-Georgian border, head of the international law department at the Russian Prosecutor General's Office Robert Adelkhanyan told journalists.

He said his Georgian colleagues had finished the investigation and brought these two Georgian separatists' criminal case into court. "We approve of our Georgian colleagues' work as the main demand we placed on Georgia was to punish all separatists and terrorists," Adelkhanyan stressed.

He said that these Chechen Kistians had been accused in compliance with three articles of the Georgian criminal code: illegal border crossing, illegal carrying and stockpiling of arms and smuggling fire-arms to Georgia. They may be sentenced to 5-8 years of imprisonment, with the total term equalling 10 years.

Adelkhanyan also stressed that the Prosecutor General's Office still insisted on extraditing other detained separatists, who were Russian citizens.

Thirteen armed Chechen separatists were detained by Georgian frontier guards this August. On October 4th, Georgia extradited 5 Chechens to Russia. During the investigation the police established that another two detainees were Georgians born in the Pankisi gorge and they could not be extradited to Russia, so they were to face the Georgian court.

On November 29th, Georgia's prosecutor general decided to extradite three more Chechens - Gelagayeva, Alkhanova and Elkhadzhiyeva - to Russia. According to the legislation, the extradited were allowed to appeal the prosecutor general's decision in the country's district and Supreme courts.