The Counterintelligence Department of the State Security Service of Georgia has arrested one person on espionage charges.
Radio Liberty reports that the detainee is 27-year-old Tamaz Goloevi (Goloti) from Akhalgori. His father is Ossetian and his mother Georgian, the outlet says. He studied in Tskhinvali and frequently traveled to Tbilisi.
Radio Liberty spoke to the detainee’s mother, Maya, who said her son arrived in Tbilisi from Akhalgori on April 22, 2026, and was arrested upon arrival. She said she learned about the arrest from television.
“I think they are falsely accusing him,” she said, adding that she had not noticed anything suspicious in her son’s behavior.
She also said she has no information about two other individuals mentioned in the case who are also suspected of espionage and are wanted.
The State Security Service of Georgia says the detained citizen was “recruited by a foreign intelligence service and given an appropriate pseudonym,” without specifying it.
The agency says that, in exchange for money, he was instructed to collect information on the deployment of the Security Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, and the Ministry of Defense of Georgia, as well as to photograph and record their locations.
It also said he was tasked with gathering information on strategic infrastructure, including bridges, highways and railways.
The statement adds that he is accused of collecting and transmitting information on behalf of foreign intelligence officers.
The Security Service says the suspect had been under surveillance for months, although it has not clarified whether any information was actually passed or what evidence is being used in the case.
The detainee faces 8–12 years in prison if convicted.
