TBILISI, October 27 (RIA Novosti) - A court in Tbilisi Saturday released seven Abkhaz servicemen detained September 20, giving them five-year suspended sentences.
According to the court ruling, the sentence was given on charges of illegally acquiring, possessing and carrying firearms, being members of illegal armed units and attempting to kill two or more people.
Georgia's conflict minister, David Bakradze, pledged Thursday to release on Saturday seven military personnel, detained in the mountains of Georgia's secessionist republic of Abkhazia, as a gesture of good will.
Bakradze made the statement following a meeting with Abkhazian Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba in the UN mission office in Sukhumi, the capital of the self-proclaimed republic.
Abkhazia said on September 20 that a Georgian military group had entered the republic's territory, murdering two and abducting seven Abkhazian border guards, while Tbilisi accused Abkhazia of "armed provocation."
Shamba said Thursday he did not think the talks meant the resumption of negotiations on a conflict resolution between Sukhumi and Tbilisi, which broke off in July 2006, when Tbilisi occupied the upper part of the Kodori Gorge, on the de facto border between Georgia and the breakaway republic, and established a parallel Abkhaz administration there.
Mutual accusations of ceasefire violations have been frequent from both Abkhazia and Georgia, whose President Mikheil Saakashvili has vowed to regain control of the region.
Abkhazia declared independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, sparking a bloody conflict in the region.
The UN Observer Mission in Georgia said the recent incident occurred on Abkhazia-controlled territory and that Georgian soldiers reportedly fired pointblank at Abkhazians.
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the bloodshed, saying it was a premeditated murder.
