This morning, the occupation forces illegally arrested 6 citizens of Georgia. Aleksi Batiashvili, the first Deputy Head of the State Security Service, stated while presenting the 2022 report of the State Security Service at the joint meeting of the three committees.

According to him, the arrest of 6 Georgian citizens has already been confirmed, a hotline has been activated and international partners are involved.

"During the reporting period, 44 people were illegally arrested in the direction of the occupied Tskhinvali region, and 13 people were arrested in the direction of the occupied Abkhazia, among them the fact of the arrest of a citizen of Georgia on charges of so-called espionage is noteworthy. In total, at the end of 2022, 9 citizens of Georgia were in illegal detention. Here I want to tell you another unfortunate fact that this morning another 6 of our fellow citizens were illegally detained by the occupation forces. The hotline is activated, our international partners are involved. Their arrest has already been confirmed and we are waiting for further developments. We will do everything so that these people return to their families as soon as possible," said Alexi Batiashvili.