Georgia has exchanged prisoners with South Ossetia, the breakaway region over which it fought a war with Russia.
Pro-Western Georgia and Russian-backed South Ossetia accuse each other of holding people illegally since the August 2008 conflict, when Russia crushed a Georgian military assault on the rebel region. “We have exchanged six Ossetians and one Russian for seven Georgians,” said Georgia’s Interior ministry spokesman, Shota Utiashvili.
He said Georgia released people arrested on various charges, including drug trafficking and counterfeiting, while South Ossetia freed Georgians charged with illegally crossing the border.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia threw off Tbilisi’s rule in the early 1990s after bloody conflicts.
