The head of the State Security Service of Georgia, Grigol Liluashvili, on Friday said the occupation of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia by Russia was the main threat to Georgia's statehood.
Liluashvili noted in 2021 Russian heavy weapons and military contingents were still “illegally stationed” in the occupied territories of Georgia with intensive military exercises and the process of militarisation taking place on the ground.
The occupying forces continued to make illegal arrests. The illegal so-called ‘borderisation’ continued. The main goal of this was to inflame the feeling of insecurity in the population, discredit state institutions and spread nihilism in the public”, he said when presenting the 2021 report of the State Security Service to the Parliament.
The head of the State Security Service noted that at the end of 2021, a total of 7 citizens of Georgia were in illegal detention, including Irakli Bebua, whose freedom was “illegally” restricted by the occupation regime for a period of 9 years.
I would like to assure, first of all, the families of the illegally detained persons, as well as the honourable MPs, that all citizens of Georgia will be released from illegal detention. The state of Georgia has the power and practice to implement it”, Liluashvili concluded.