The State Security Service of Georgia (SSG), Georgia’s domestic intelligence agency, announced today it has launched an investigation into alleged disclosure of state secrets.
The SSG noted that frequent cases of public disclosure of information about official duties of the SSG employees and officials clearly violate the Law on State Secrets.
The Security Service said, albeit without elaborating further, that an “intensive” investigation is underway to identify all perpetrators, to give a legal response to these facts and prevent further disclosure of information containing state secrets.
It also noted that the investigation has been launched under Article 320 (2) of the Criminal Code of Georgia, involving disclosure of state secrets that resulted in grave consequences for the interests of Georgia. The charges envisage imprisonment for a term of five to eight years.
The SSG statement came after Mtavari Arkhi TV, a channel critical to the Georgian Dream government, aired on August 1 alleged memos of the State Security Service, involving spying on the phone conversations of President Salome Zurabishvili, presidential and government administration officials, opposition and civil society leaders, a foreign embassy employee, as well as the alleged orders extending surveillance on intimate lives of Georgian Dream representatives, businessmen and clergy, including gay and lesbian citizens.
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