Former Head of Georgia's State Security Service Arrested for Bribery

Grigol Liluashvili, the former head of Georgia's State Security Service, has been arrested on bribery charges.

Grigol Liluashvili is accused of accepting $1 million from a Turkish investor in October 2022, promising to facilitate a cooperation memorandum for the construction of wind farms. Earlier, in February 2022, according to the prosecution, he received 1.5 million lari (equivalent to $550 million) from a Georgian investor, promising to help win gasification tenders. Furthermore, it is alleged that between 2021 and 2023, Liluashvili covered up the activities of fraudulent call centers that financed opposition media outlets, for which he received a $1.4 million reward.

Furthermore, the former head of the State Security Service is suspected of harboring his acquaintance, Kakha Gvantseladze, who served as director of the Agency for the Management of Kindergartens at the Tbilisi City Hall and allegedly engaged in illegal tender schemes for the procurement of supplies for kindergartens, receiving bribes in return.

Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili claims that Liluashvili organized a scheme to finance "radical opposition media" using corrupt proceeds.

Grigol Liluashvili served as head of the State Security Service from 2019 to 2025. If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of 11 to 15 years.

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