Court Jails Russian Citizen Over Alleged Journalist Murder Plot

The Tbilisi City Court ruled a four year prison sentence for Russian citizen Magomed Gutsiev in connection with the alleged murder plot against Georgian TV anchor Giorgi Gabunia, who insulted Russian President Vladimir Putin in July 2019.

The Prosecution said the Court found Gutsiev guilty of all charges, which involved forging and using identification documents (Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Georgia), illegally crossing Georgia’s border (Article 344 CC), stalking (Article 151’1 CC), unlawful obtaining, storage, use, dissemination of or otherwise making available personal information or data (Article 157 CC).

Georgia’s State Security Service arrested Gutsiev in June 2020, after he had repeatedly crossed the Georgian state border illegally, with a falsified passport under an alias of Vasambek Bokov. He carried out “systematic surveillance” over Gabunia and obtained information about him.

The alleged murder plot was first revealed when Mtavari Arkhi TV Director Nika Gvaramia said on June 15, 2020, that Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov had sent a hitman to assassinate Giorgi Gabunia, a payback for insulting the Russian President. Kadyrov reportedly denied his involvement in the murder plot, saying “if someone acted upon his orders, he would fulfill them.”

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