Security Service Detains Terror Case Convict

The Counter-terrorism Department of the State Security Service, Georgia’s domestic intelligence agency, detained a 21-year-old Ruslan Shavadze, a member of the group of militants led by senior ISIS member Ahmed Chatayev.

Shavadze, who was wanted on charges of joining a foreign terrorist organization and assisting terror-related activities, was sentenced to 13 years in absentia by a Tbilisi court on July 27. The convict was detained in Batumi, Adjara region, where he reportedly hails from.

According to the State Security Service, Ruslan Shavadze joined the Islamic State group in September 2016 and took active part in military operations in Syria and Iraq.

The Security Service said Shavadze, together with Ahmed Chatayev and another of their accomplices, illegally crossed the Kirnati-Maradidi section of the Turkish-Georgian border in October 2017. The group was plotting terrorist acts in Georgia, according to the authorities.

The Security Service added that the convict left the apartment the group members were living at in Tbilisi shortly before the Georgian security forces launched a detention operation on November 21, 2017. Shavadze was at large since then.

Shavadze’s detention comes less than three weeks after Shoaif Borziev, another member of the Chatayev group, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. The court also announced the prison sentences for four citizens of Georgia, who were arrested for assisting the Chatayev group in Georgia. Two more Georgian nationals are awaiting court decision.

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