The State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) claims that a large quantity of firearms, ammunition, and explosives with a detonator has been discovered in connection with October 4 events.
According to the SSSG, on the instructions of a Georgian representative of a military unit operating in Ukraine, Georgian citizen B. Ch. acquired a significant amount of firearms, ammunition, and explosive devices.
“According to the operational information available to us, these materials were intended for sabotage acts in parallel with the group violence and the attempted seizure of the Presidential Palace in Tbilisi on October 4,” said Lasha Maghradze, First Deputy Head of the State Security Service, at a briefing on October 5.
He added that authorities were able to neutralize the circle of individuals who were reportedly supposed to transport the weapons and explosives into central Tbilisi.
“The firearms, ammunition, and explosives were hidden in a special cache in a forested area near Tbilisi. We have also identified the individual who, on B. Ch.’s order, manufactured the detonator and the detonator’s control device, which could have been used to trigger the explosives. That person is now in the custody of the Security Service, and investigative actions are ongoing.
In connection with this crime, B. Ch. has been formally held responsible and is now wanted. Today, his apartment in Vake was searched, and his personal phone — which he used while in Georgia — was seized. Examination of the phone revealed key evidence, including several videos in which B. Ch. shows an as-yet unidentified person the firearms and explosives he acquired and provides an account regarding them,” Maghradze said.
The investigation has been launched under Article 236, Part 3 of the Criminal Code, which criminalizes the illegal acquisition or possession of firearms, ammunition, explosives, or explosive devices. Conviction carries a prison sentence of three to six years.
