Intelligence chief Izoria resigns, appointed ambassador

Levan Izoria will replace Elguja Khokrishvili as the country’s new ambassador to Germany.

Agenda.ge, 28 Jan 2020 - 11:21, Tbilisi,Georgia

Head of the Georgian Intelligence Service and the Secretary of the National Security Council Levan Izoria has resigned, becoming the country’s new ambassador to Germany.

Izoria has dismissed media reports that the resignation is linked to the recently released video, recorded in 2014, depicting his brother’s dispute with a law enforcer.

Being the country’s new ambassador to Germany is a new challenge, honour and a big responsibility for me,” Izoria said, criticizing the opposition for calling the resignation “a demotion.”

Izoria, who was appointed as the head of the Intelligence Service in September 2019, previously served as the country's defence minister and as deputy interior minister and deputy head of the State Security Service.

Elguja Khokrishvili, Georgia's previous ambassador to Germany, was appointed on the position in 2017.

Speaking about the video involving his brother to POSTTV yesterday, Izoria dismissed the opposition’s accusations of “concealing a crime.”

He said that he learnt about the incident only after it ended and he “never forced law enforcers to release his brother.”

Izoria also said that Mayor Giorgi Dvalishvili, who detained his brother for hooliganism and disobeying the police in 2014, was promoted several times and “his [Dvalishvili’s] accusations of political prosecution [for detention of Izoria’s brother, Vakhtang Izoria] are invented.”