Officers of the Border Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have detained two foreign nationals — T.M. (born 1981) and Z.M. (born 1986) — for illegally crossing the Georgian state border as a group. The arrest was made during an operational-search operation conducted in the ‘Kartsakhi’ guard section of the Akhaltsikhe Border Sector, the Border Police reported.

According to the agency, the offense is punishable by up to five years of imprisonment.

“The investigation established that the detainees bypassed the official border checkpoint and illegally crossed the Georgian state border from the Republic of Turkey into Georgia as a group.

The investigation is ongoing under Part 2 of Article 344 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which concerns the illegal crossing of the state border committed by a group,” the statement reads.