Polish TV crew freed in South Ossetia

http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/news/?id=90997


September 9, 2008

A crew from the Polish National Television (TVP), detained yesterday by a patrol of Ossetian police, has been freed.

In the morning journalists were taken to a border crossing to Georgia where they were handed over to the Georgian party. No charges were leveled against the crew.

The journalists revealed that they were taken for spies and accused of co-operation with Georgian intelligence.

The crew was detained on a road from Gori to Tskhinvali, near the city of Karaleti, where the Russian buffer zone starts. Reporter Dariusz Bohatkiewicz and cameraman Marcin Wesołowski, as well as their Georgian driver Lewan Guliaszwili were preparing material for the evening news.

The police confiscated their entire equipment, including cameras and mobile phones.

After the initial questioning the detained were transported to the South Ossetia’s capital Tskhinvali where they were interrogated for a second time. Later on the journalists were transported to a school in the capital’s suburbs where they spent the night. (jm)