Georgia’s Security Service: father of deceased suspect planned terrorist attack on former security official

Father of deceased terror suspect Temirlan Machalikashvili, Malkhaz Machalikashvili, attempted to kill the former deputy head of Georgia’s State Security Service (SSS) Ioseb Gogashvili, the State Security Service of Georgia announced at a special briefing earlier today.

The SSS said that Gogashvili, who served in the agency in December 2017 when 19-year-old Temirlan Machalikashvili was shot during an anti-terrorist raid in Georgia’s Muslim-populated Pankisi Gorge, may have been the target of a terrorist attack at the grave of his father in the village of Zemo Machkhaani, in the eastern Kakheti region of Georgia.

The agency says that Machalikashvili instructed his brother’s son, Moris Machalikashvili, to collect all necessary information and take photos of the grave “to plan the following steps.”

Gogashvili quit his post in the State Security Service in the summer of 2018. Photo: State Security Service press office. 

SSS released audio recording of the conversation.

Moris Machalikashvili is being interrogated now,” head of the SSS press office Nino Giorgobiani said.

She stated that the SSS managed to preempt “the gravest crime.”

SSS says that Malkhaz  Machalikashvili has also been summoned for interrogation, but he refused to come.

Now other measures will be used [to force him to answer questions],” Giorgobiani said.

Giorgobiani stated that the SSS showed interest in Machalikashvili when he told the public  in front of the Georgian parliament building in Tbilisi during a rally on June 1, 2018 that he and his people planned to explode themselves in the State Security building, but he changed his mind.

Machalikashvili believes that his son was mistakenly shot by special unit serviceman, “who failed to differentiate a mobile phone from a hand grenade,” and has been demanding the punishment of the serviceman, current head of the State Security Service Vakhtang Gomelauri and his former deputy Ioseb Gogashvili.

The Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office announced the end of the investigation regarding the exceeding of power regarding Machalikashvili’s case in a two-month time today.

However, Machalikashvili said that he did not trust the investigation.

Responding to the allegations, Machalikashvili said that "they [the government] are using all the methods to ruin me, but they will not achieve the goal." 

Machalikashvili's wife told the media that they knew that their phones were being eavesdropped and " he [Machalikashvili] is not crazy to have spoken such things]." 

• The Pankisi raid came after the anti-terrorist raid in Tbilisi on November 21-22 2017, which saw Islamic State terrorist Ahmed Chatayev and his accomplices killed.
• Georgia’s State Security Service stated then that Chatayev and his group planned attacks on diplomats in Turkey and Georgia.
• The December raid in Pankisi aimed at detaining the people who supported Chatayev’s arrival in Georgia, the agency reported.
• During the Pankisi raid Machalikashvili was wounded and four others were detained for support of terrorists.
• Machalikashvili died on January 10, 2018 in a hospital, shortly before his transportation to Turkey for treatment.