Four women from Dagestan ask not to return them to their relatives

At the "Verkhniy Lars" checkpoint, the young women from Dagestan have written applications about threats received from their relatives, the Ombudsperson of North Ossetia has stated. In her audio message, one of the girls asked not to return them to their relatives who came to pick them up.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that border guards refused to allow the four girls from Dagestan who had escaped from domestic violence to pass through the above checkpoint to Georgia, and are holding them at the checkpoint until their relatives arrive. The girls from Dagestan told how they were beaten up at home, forbidden to receive education, and tried to force into marriage.

One of the four girls, Aminat Gazimagomedova, asked not to give them back to their relatives. "We are kept in a room that looks like a cell; relatives are waiting out in the street. If they give us to them, they will kill us," the girl said in her audio record that was posted in the Telegram channel of the SK SOS Crisis Group.

The mother of Patimat and Khadizhat and their cousin have arrived at the "Verkhniy Lars" checkpoint and tried to take the girls home by force. However, Leysan Mannapova, an advocate, managed to convince the police not to let the relatives to her clients.

Tamerlan Tsgoev, the Ombudsperson for North Ossetia, has arrived at the checkpoint. He said that border guards were holding the girls because of an application that they had stolen 50,000 roubles, which was written by their relatives, because of which, according to Mr Tsgoev's story, the girls were declared wanted.