A man arrested by the State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) on spying charges, who pro-government media said worked for Russia, has been identified by RFE/RL’s Georgian Service as Tamaz Goloev (Goloti), a 27-year-old resident of Akhalgori, a town in the occupied Tskhinvali region.
The outlet said it spoke with Goloev’s mother, Maia, who said her son traveled from Akhalgori to Tbilisi on the morning of April 22 and was detained upon arrival. She said she learned of the detention on television and later traveled to Tbilisi but could not see him, adding that she believes authorities are “falsely accusing” him of spying.
The SSSG said on April 22 that it arrested one Georgian citizen on suspicion of “espionage” for a foreign intelligence service, adding that it would seek Interpol notices for two other Georgians currently outside the country. According to the SSSG, the detainee was recruited by a foreign intelligence service to collect “various types of information,” including about strategic facilities, “against Georgia’s interests,” and to pass it on to the service.
While the agency has not identified the individuals or the foreign country they allegedly worked for, pro-government media, including Rustavi 2, and later Imedi, reported that the suspects spied for Russia.
Outgoing SSSG chief Mamuka Mdinaradze hinted at the country but refrained from naming it during a late-night interview on Imedi TV on April 22. “It may be very good for me today, in the eyes and ears of some people, to say which country’s spies we are talking about,” Mdinaradze said. “But going forward, the Security Service is not going to limit itself to just one country, because not only that country, which might look good from a PR perspective, has such individuals [spies] in this country,” he added. “It is better not to name one country from the outset, nor another later,” he said, adding, “They [critics] will no longer be able to call us out.”
The program’s host, Magda Anikashvili, added, before being interrupted by Mdinaradze, “It may be assumed that your opponents will no longer have grounds to say that you have never exposed a spy from this country…our viewers will draw their own conclusions.”
On April 24, the Prosecutor General’s Office charged all three under Article 314 of Georgia’s Criminal Code, which carries a penalty of up to twelve years in prison.
Also Read:
This post is also available in:
