The State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) said on May 5 that it had arrested a Georgian official for spying for a foreign country’s intelligence service. While the agency did not name the suspect in its initial statement, it later confirmed to Civil.ge that the detainee is Giorgi Udzilauri, as first reported by pro-government Rustavi 2 TV.
Udzilauri most recently served as head of the press service of the Finance Ministry’s Investigative Service. Previously, he had worked as head of the public relations service of Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Kartu Group.
The SSSG neither disclosed the country for which Udzilauri was allegedly spying, while Rustavi 2 said in its report that he spied for “one of the European countries,” without specifying which.
The case follows a similar arrest on April 22 of one Georgian citizen and the charging in absentia of two others for alleged espionage for a foreign country’s intelligence service. Pro-Georgian Dream media said the person was spying for Russia. While the agency did not state this directly, then-outgoing SSSG Chief Mamuka Mdinaradze alluded to it. RFE/RL’s Georgian Service later identified the individual as Tamaz Goloev, a resident of Akhalgori, a town in the occupied Tskhinvali region.
The SSSG also arrested on April 25 a former employee who, at the time of the arrest, worked at the Interior Ministry, on accusations of “taking out classified information” from the agency. The agency did not name the former employee, but soon after the statement, pro-government Imedi TV identified the suspect as Vako Bidzishvili, an official at the Interior Ministry’s Security Police.
SSSG’s Statement
“A public official employed in a high-ranking position at a state agency, acting against the country’s interests, used his current official position, previously held posts, and personal connections across various agencies to systematically obtain information and pass it to a foreign country’s intelligence services,” Lasha Maghradze, the first deputy head of the SSSG, announced on May 5.
Maghradze said the detainee “maintained systematic, highly organized, clandestine contacts” with a representative of a foreign country’s intelligence service. “Meetings were planned using encrypted, two-way communication and were held at various locations under strictly observed, prearranged clandestine conditions,” he added, noting that the transfer of information was carried out both in person and through electronic means.
According to Maghradze, the information the suspect passed to a foreign intelligence service included “various categories of classified data related to ongoing political and economic processes in Georgia, the situation within law enforcement agencies and security structures, information on ethnic and religious minorities, and other data of interest to those commissioning the information.”
“Acting on the instructions of a representative of a foreign intelligence service, the detainee was also working on creating information platforms aimed at recruiting media representatives and using this network to obtain intelligence-related information in line with the foreign service’s interests, including with regard to countries in the region,” Maghradze said, adding that the suspect carried out this work for material gain.
The detainee will be charged under Article 314 of Georgia’s Criminal Code, which carries a sentence of eight to twelve years in prison.