A Georgian priest of the Sameba Church (Holy Trinity) Father Ion, who was imprisoned in Abkhazia for over two weeks, has been released, head of the Analytical Department of the Georgian Interior Ministry, Shota Utiashvili, said, News Georgia reports.
Father Ion (Mamuk Maysuradze) went on pilgrimage to Abkhazia in late January. He was planning to study the condition of Abkhaz churches but went missing. Abkhazia reported that the monk was detained by the police. Georgia started negotiations for release of Father Ion in Gali on January 31 as part of the mechanism for prevention of incidents and reaction.
The monk is currently in Tbilisi. Utiashvili thanked all Georgian police staff for organizing the cleric’s release.
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