State Security Service Head: French authorities have not contacted Georgia regarding family member of Arras attacker
Liluashvili was commenting on the French media report, which alleged that the 20-year-old Arras attacker’s father “was deported from France a few years ago and currently lives in Georgia”. Photo via State Security Service
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Grigol Liluashvili, the Head of the Georgian State Security Service, on Wednesday said the French investigative services “have not contacted Georgia for legal assistance regarding the father of the Arras attacker”, who killed one and injured several people in a knife attack at a public school in northern France town of Arras.
Liluashvili was commenting on the French media report, which alleged that the 20-year-old Arras attacker’s father “was deported from France a few years ago and currently lives in Georgia”.
He stressed that the French side generally should request legal assistance officially, after which investigative activities would be carried out, adding at the moment the Arras school stabbing was being investigated only by the French authorities.
Last Friday, the attacker killed a school teacher and injured several, with the French Government calling it an Islamist terror attack, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to call for a “ruthless” approach towards extremists, the media reported.
The United States Department of State's 2021 Country Report on Terrorism on Tuesday said Georgia had continued its “robust engagement” on counterterrorism issues throughout that year and remained a “strong” security partner for the United States.
The Georgian foreign office on Tuesday said it “utterly condemned” the “cowardly terrorist attack” in Brussels that killed two Swedish football fans and left one injured ahead of a football match between Belgium and Sweden on Monday.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday condemned the recent “terrorist attack” organised by Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas on Israel in a meeting with the country’s Ambassador to Georgia Hadas Meitzad in Tbilisi.
The Georgian State Security Service on Saturday announced the detention of Georgian citizen Malkhaz Paksashvili, the leader of one of the groups of the terrorist organisation Islamic State, by its Counterterrorism Centre.
Grigol Liluashvili, the Head of the Georgian State Security Service, on Thursday said the Service's efforts and the implemented measures “have significantly reduced the number of possible supporters of terrorism” in Georgia.