Georgia’s Security Service prevents terror attack, 7 arrested

Seven people have been arrested and charged with attempting to carry out terror-related crimes in Georgia.

Georgia’s State Security Service (SSS) has prevented a terror attack in Georgia, which aimed to set off five explosions along a Russia-Armenia gas pipeline that passed through Georgian soil.

Today the SSS held a special briefing and said seven people – all Georgian citizens – had been detained for their involvement in the alleged crime. The group had been under surveillance by the SSS and the agency managed to intervene moments before any terrorist attack took place.

Five people were charged with organising a terrorist act, illegal purchase and possession of explosives and military weapons. The other two have been charged for other illegalities in relation to the case.

These five people were directly involved in the terrorist attack attempt and were only identified as Beka B, Vledimir R, Mindia V, Jaba M and Nuri Ch.

A sixth detainee, named as Levan M, was charged with exceeding official powers in relation to the alleged offence as he was an acting employee of Georgia’s Patrol Police. 

The seventh alleged offender, named as Irakli B, was charged with concealing a crime. 

The SSS said the seven people had been under surveillance for five months before they were detained on August 20. The group planned to blow up several points of the the Russia-Armenia section of the gas pipeline at Saguramo Village, about 21km from Georgia’s capital Tbilisi. 

The five individuals were arrested and detained on site when they tried to transport explosive materials and weapons from a hidden area in a forest near Georgia’s eastern Zhinvali-Shatili highway, the SSS said. 

Law enforcers also seized maps from the personal computer of one of the alleged offenders that indicated the exact locations on the pipeline where explosions were planned.

The SSS said one of the people arrested frequently travelled to Ukraine but they had no evidence whether the group had been tasked by someone in Ukraine to carry out the attack.