TBILISI. April 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Four members of Chechen warlord Ruslan Gelayev's guerilla gang, who escaped from a detention ward in Sukhumi on Monday together with five more criminals, managed to get to western Georgia overnight to Wednesday regardless of all measures taken by Abkhaz law- enforcement agencies, Abkhaz Deputy Interior Minister Leonid Gablia said.
"The four men hijacked an Ural truck and drove away," Gablia told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"Officials of Georgian special services helped the Gelayev gang members get to western Georgia," Gablia said.
Georgia has not commented on the statement.
According to Gablia, the other five runaways are supposedly staying in Abkhazia and the search for them is underway.
The four rebels were taken prisoner during the Gelayev gang's raid on the Kodori gorge in 2001. One of them was sentenced to fusillade, and the other three to 12 years in prison.
Gablia noted that five other criminals were sentenced to death for murders committed in Sukhumi and the Sukhumi district on various occasions.