A high-ranking civil servant employed in a state agency has been arrested on charges of espionage - SSU

As a result of intensive counterintelligence measures carried out by the Counterintelligence Department of the State Security Service over the past few months, one Georgian citizen has been arrested on charges of espionage, namely, collecting and transmitting information on behalf of foreign special services, - this was announced at a briefing held at the SSU.

According to the SSU, evidence obtained as a result of various, including covert investigative actions, establishes that a high-ranking civil servant in one of the state agencies systematically obtained and transferred information to foreign special services, contrary to the interests of the country, through his current employment status, past positions, and personal connections in various agencies.

“The detainee had systematic contacts of a highly organized conspiratorial nature with a representative of a foreign intelligence service. The meetings were planned using encrypted two-way communication and were held at various locations, in strict compliance with the conditions of the conspiracy agreed in advance. The information was provided both through face-to-face contact and by electronic means. The information transferred to the foreign intelligence service included various categories of secret data related to the ongoing political and economic processes in Georgia, the situation in law enforcement agencies and security structures, information about ethnic and religious minorities, and other data of interest to the customers of the information transfer. In addition, the evidence obtained establishes that, on the instructions of the representative of the foreign intelligence service, the detainee also worked on the creation of information platforms, the purpose of which was to attract representatives of the media sphere and, using the aforementioned network, to interest the foreign intelligence service. Accordingly, obtaining intelligence information, including in the direction of the countries of the region. The accused carried out the above-mentioned activities with the aim of obtaining material benefits. The investigation into the case is underway under Part 1 of Article 314 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which provides for a sentence of 8 to 12 years of imprisonment,” the SSU said.