Polish reporters freed after being captured in South Ossetia

Reporter Dariusz Bohatkiewicz, cameraman Marcin Wesołowski and their driver, Georgian translator Levan Guliashvili, had finished an assignment and were on their way back to Georgia when they were stopped in the village of Karaleti, some 20 km away from Gori by Russian troops and South Ossetian militia.

While being transported to an unknown destination, the captives were told that they came from a country hostile towards the Russian Federation and were considered to be British spies, Bohatkiewicz told a number of foreign news agencies.

Bohatkiewicz admitted that they were treated very well and were allowed to contact their families. They spent the night at a bombed-out school in the regional capital, Tskhinvali. The reporting material they gathered was closely inspected by the militia and the reporters were interrogated. The journalist said that he feared most for their Georgian colleague.

The three were released on Tuesday morning after intervention by the Polish embassy inGeorgia and in the presence of an OSCE official, which was demanded by Russian troops.

"We got all of our equipment back, nothing was destroyed or erased," said Bohatkiewicz on TVP Info, minutes after being freed.