Several NGOs rallied in the village of kvemo Chala in Kaspi Municipality on Sunday, demanded an immediate release of unlawfully detained Zaza Gakheladze.

The rally participants urge the Georgian Government to take more effective steps for Gakheladze’s timely release.

“Russia is an occupant. Russia erects barbed-wire fences and kidnaps people,” one of the NGO members, Davit Doneriani, said.

Earlier this week, Georgian citizen Zaza Gakheladze has been sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison by the de facto Supreme Court of the Russian-occupied Tskhinvali region.

Zaza Gakheladze, a local of Kvemo Chala village, Kaspi Municipality, was detained and wounded in his leg at Skhvilo Fortress on July 11. The occupied regime charged Gakheladze for an attempt to cross the so-called border illegally and for the attempted murder of a Russian soldier.

The Chair of the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC), Ambassador Muhammad Shahid Amin Khan echoed the decision and said, “IHRC joins the appeal to an immediate release of Zaza Gakheladze and asks the international community to act faster to stop Russian aggression on people freedoms.”