Georgia’s Security Service accuses the father of late terror suspect of organizing a terror attack
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, May 9
Georgia’s State Security Service (SSS) says that the father of deceased terror suspect Temirlan Machalikashvili, Malkhaz Machalikashvili, who blames the agency for mistakenly killing his son in 2017, planned a terror attack on former deputy head of SSS Ioseb Gogashvili.
The agency says that Machalikashvili attempted to kill Gogashvili at the grave of his father in the Zemo Machkhaani village of the Kakheti region, which might have claimed other lives.
'We have prevented the gravest crime,' SSS stated and released a recording in which, allegedly, Machalikashvili speaks with his brother’s son to 'study the territory of the grave.'
SSS said that Machalikashvili was summoned for interrogation on May 7. However, he refused to show up.
Machalikashvili says that he has been fighting to reveal the truth behind the death of his son since the incident in December 2017 and had to endure 'very unjust, inhumane treatment from the government and the agency.'
“I might have had such a conversation. I had minutes when I was extremely angry and abused and had such thoughts. However, these were only thoughts and I always fought with myself. I felt the support of the Georgian people and decided to hold the killers of my son accountable only with the help of law,” Machalikashvili said.
He stated that he did not know why the agency wanted to interrogate him.
“I thought it was about my son. I have already been interrogated four times. If I knew that the interrogation was about the allegations, I would have come,” He said.
Gogashvili, who quit the post in 2018, says that he is '100 percent sure' that Machalikashvili, who he thinks 'has links with terrorists', could have committed the crime.
He thanked the Security Service for protecting him and his family.
The opposition asks if the man [Machalikashvili] was accused of planning a terrorist attack, why he has not been detained so far.
A day before the statement of the agency the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office vowed that the investigation into the Machalikashvili case started in 2017, would be completed in two month time and stated that they were waiting for the conclusion of experts.
Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), an NGO working on human rights issues, responded to the Prosecutor’s Office by saying that the results of the autopsy are already known.
“It is surprising on why the Prosecutor’s Office is waiting for the results of the autopsy when the autopsy already revealed that the reason for death was a shot in the head,” EMC says.
EMC urged the Prosecutor’s Office to hold the serviceman accountable who shot Machalikashvili, as well as those people who planned the raid.
“Father of Temirlan Machalikashvili must be granted the status of victim and lawyers must be allowed to familiarize themselves with the case materials,” EMC said.
Temirlan Machalikashvili was deadly shot in the December 26 counter-terrorist raid in Georgia’s Muslim-populated [Kist and Chechen] Pankisi Gorge, in eastern Georgia, and died on January 10, 2018.
The State Security Service says that Machalikashvili had a hand grenade.
The Pankisi raid came after the large-scale anti-terrorist operation in Tbilisi on November 21-22 2017, which saw Islamic State terrorist Akhmed Chatayev and his two accomplices killed and one detained.
Georgia’s State Security Service claims Chatayev and his group planned attacks on diplomats in Turkey and Georgia.
The December raid in Pankisi aimed at detaining the people who supported Chatayev to come to Georgia, buy weapons and find an accommodation, security officials stated.
During the Pankisi raid, Machalikashvili was shot and four others were detained for alleged support for terrorism.
The Machalikashvili family says that the Security Service rushed in a wrong house and a special unit serviceman could not differentiate a mobile phone from a hand grenade.
They state that the deceased is a victim, with no terrorist links, and all who planned and executed the raid, including the current head of the State Security Service Vakhtang Gomelauri and his former deputy Gogashvili, must be held accountable.
