Georgia: Tskhinvali May Propose Prisoner Swap to Tbilisi

Four Georgian teenagers held in a jail in the breakaway region of South Ossetia may be traded for several South Ossetian prisoners of war still held by Tbilisi after the 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict, a separatist South Ossetian government official told the Georgian newspaper Rezonansi on November 17.

"I hope that the Georgian side agrees to this because this is going to be the best option," Rezonansi quoted Kosta Dzugayev, an adviser to de facto South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity, as saying.

The teenagers, from a village that borders on South Ossetia, have already spent two weeks in captivity on charges that they crossed the border illegally and carried explosive substances.

The Georgian Ministry of Justice on November 17 sent a complaint about the detention to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Various European Union agencies have taken turns to call for the immediate release of the detainees.