The Georgian parliament has approved Grigol Liluashvili as the new head of the Georgian State Security Service (SSS), replacing Vakhtang Gomelauri in the role.
85 MPs voted for Liluashvili, while eight voted against him in the 150-member parliament.
Liluashvili, who addressed the parliament's Defence and Security Committee yesterday, had served as deputy head of SSS since 2017 and the first deputy head of the same agency since January 2019.
Liluashvili was MP in the 2016 parliament, before being appointed deputy head of SSS in December 2017.
Previously he held high posts at Tbilisi City Hall and the Cartu Group [founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the chair of the Georgian Dream ruling party].
Gomelauri became the minister of internal affairs of Georgia last month and the post of the head of SSS has been vacant since then.