Georgian man arrested for allegedly joining ISIS

A Georgian citizen has been arrested for having alleged links with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and supporting terrorism.

Georgian police detained Davit Borchashvili, 29, a resident of Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, when he arrived in Tbilisi International Airport from Turkey last night.

The Counterterrorist Centre of the State Security Service of Georgia said the man was arrested for "joining or assisting a foreign terrorist organisation”.

After Borchashvili was detained he was taken to hospital for treatment of an earlier leg injury.

He is due to be officially convicted of being involved in a terrorist organisation later today.

The case was labeled as secret so no further details were released. 

Borchashvili’s family said he lived and worked in Turkey and he had never been to Syria.

On November 21 two YouTube videos were uploaded on the internet showing a man who looked like Borchashvili alongside armed men.

One video showed him armed, sitting in a car with several other men while the other video showed him attending a funeral of another fighter.

The videos were uploaded by unidentified users ‘Pankiski’ and ‘Al Shishani’.

Borchashvili’s lawyer said his client had gone to Syria but he had no connection with ISIS or any other terrorist organisation.

"The group he had a connection with fights against [Syrian president Bashar] Al-Assad’s regime and the Islamic State too. It is a free army of Syria, which is supported by democratic western states,” the lawyer said.

The Pankisi Gorge is a valley mainly inhabited by the Kist sub-ethnos in northeastern Georgia that borders the Chechnyan republic of the Russian Federation. The area once sheltered rebels from the Russians during the Chechen wars.

The Pankisi Gorge remained to be one of the most challenging areas of Georgia. In 2003 it was a place of major military engagement where a special operation involving police and US-trained special forces were required to repress the threats of Al-Qaeda.

The Gorge is also home to Tarkhan Batirashvili - also known as Abu Omar al-Shishani, a military leader of ISIS.

Reportedly, dozens of male and female youth have left Pankisi to join ISIS.