The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia detained two Border Demarcation Commission members Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilychova, regarding the recently initiated criminal investigation into ceding lands to Azerbaijan.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, Melashvili and Ilychova hid the 1938 map that was supposed to be used in the delimitation talks.

“Instead, the experts deliberately used maps from the 1970-80s when agreeing on the state border. The discrepancy between the original 1938 maps and what was agreed upon by the Border Delimitation Commission up until 2007, amounts to 3500 hectares of land.

The detainees did not conduct the necessary expert works and did not include cartography specialists when working on the border demarcation with Azerbaijan.

The investigation was launched on August 17, 2020, under the first part of Article 308 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, on an act committed against Georgia that is intended to transfer the entire territory of Georgia or its part to a foreign country or to separate a certain part from the Georgian territory”, - reads the statement.