Journalist Malkhaz Basilaia, held in custody in Abkhazia, has no signs of physical abuse and is treated well, Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgian state minister for reintegration, said on March 3.

His comments, aired by Rustavi 2 TV, were made after meeting with UN observers in Zugdidi, a Georgian town on the border with breakaway Abkhazia.

President Saakashvili said on February 26: “We have reliable information that he [the Georgian journalist] has not only been interrogated, but has been tortured in the so called investigative cell in Sokhumi.”