TBILISI. June 10 (Interfax-AVN) - Negotiations with the abductors of UN military observers in the Kodori Gorge have resulted in an agreement that the hostages will be released without ransom, a source with the Kodori Gorge administration told Interfax on Tuesday.
Under the agreement, the abductors will be let out of the cordoned-off area in the gorge, after which they must leave the hostages in an agreed place, he said.
After that, a border service helicopter will take the hostages to the village of Azhara in the Kodori Gorge.
The abductors were given guarantees of non-prosecution, the source said. The hostages should be released within the next few hours, he said,
Military observers from the UN mission Klaus Ott and Herbert Bauer of Germany and Henrik Soerensen of Denmark, as well as their Georgian interpreter, were kidnapped in the Kodori Gorge on June 5.
Four Russian peacekeepers who were with the UN observers were disarmed but later released by the abductors.