Two arrested in southwestern Georgia for abduction of teenage girl in forced marriage attempt

Police in Georgia's Kvemo Kartli region have arrested two men on charges of unlawfully depriving a teenage girl of her liberty in an attempt to force her into marriage.

The suspects, identified only by their initials B.I., born in 1998, and K.I., born in 1995, were detained by officers from the Bolnisi District Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the country’s southwest following an operation carried out shortly after the incident was reported.

B.I., with the assistance of his brother K.I., abducted a girl born in 2006 in the Bolnisi municipality, the MIA said.  Authorities said the motive was linked to plans of marrying the girl and stemmed from “intolerance toward gender equality.”

Law enforcement officers located the girl the same day and apprehended the suspects at the scene.

The offence is punishable by seven to ten years in prison.