Georgian police arrest man for threatening terrorism

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Agenda.ge, 30 Jul 2016 - 15:27, Tbilisi,Georgia

A young Georgian man has pled guilty to spreading a message online that incited violence and contained a threat of terrorism, and could now face a prison sentence of six to 11 years.

Georgia’s counter-terrorism officers detained a 23-year-old man from the Pankisi Gorge who allegedly posted the potentially threatening message on Facebook using a fictitious name.

The accused was identified by Georgia’s State Security Service as Vakhtang Khangoshvili, resident of Duisi village of Akhmeta region in eastern Georgia’s Kakheti region.

He has already pled guilty to the allegations and if found guilty by a court of law for threatening terrorism, Khangoshvili could be sentenced to a term of imprisonment from six to 11 years.

Akhmetaregion is where the Pankisi Gorge is located. The area is mainly inhabited by Muslims and was home to top Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist Tarkhan Batirashvili (Omar al-Shishani), who died in a counter-terrorism attack, announced the Pentagon in March.

Georgia’s the Counter-terrorism Centre released information about its investigation into the online terrorism threat.

"The investigation established that on 29th of July, 2016 the detainee disseminated information that contained a terrorism threat though social network Facebook under the username DauLevski,” said the agency, which operates under the State Security Service.

Once the investigation identified the alleged offender, police searched his vehicle and apartment. Officials did not say whether anything illegal was found in their search.

"It is worth noting that the detainee plead guilty during the interrogation process, and as a result he was detained,” the State Security Service said.

An investigation is now underway to determine the full details of the case.