The State Security Service names the substance that the Ministry of Internal Affairs used during the protests.

According to the statement of the First Deputy Head of the State Security Service, Lasha Maghradze, the substance “camite”, which was last used during the First World War, has never been purchased by the MIA. According to him, an examination was conducted on the substances seized from the agency.

According to Maghradze, the agency purchased the substance in question in 2007 and 2009.

According to the State Security Service, on the night of December 4-5, the substance “chlorobenzylidene malononitrile” was used to control the crowds, and a solution of “propylene glycol” was used as a solvent. As for “camite”, it has never been purchased by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“As you know, for several days now, the State Security Service has been conducting an investigation into a criminal case regarding both the information provided in the BBC report and the campaign conducted in Georgia based on it.

More than 160 investigative actions were conducted in this criminal case, and 93 witnesses were interviewed, including current and former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, doctors, experts, respondents interviewed in the British broadcaster’s report, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and other individuals. Various types of documentation have been seized from the Customs Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Revenue Service. The investigation seized 25 samples from the databases of the First and Second Divisions of the Special Tasks Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on which chemical expertise was conducted at the Levan Samkharauli National Forensics Bureau.

As a result of the aforementioned operational and investigative actions, it was established that the chemical powder, which was purchased by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and has been used for crowd control during protests for years, was “chlorobenzylidene malononitrile”.

The said substance was purchased by the Ministry of Internal Affairs from a Jewish company on December 18, 2007 and March 27, 2009, together with the solvent “trichloroethylene”. During transportation, it was assigned the international shipping code UN3439, and the solvent liquid was assigned the shipping code UN1710. These codes are recorded in customs documentation. A 17.5-kilogram barrel was seized as a sample, in which the aforementioned powder was stored. An information sticker made by the organization supplying the substance was attached to it, which, along with a lot of other data, indicates the name of the aforementioned substance “chlorobenzylidine malononitrile”, as well as the assigned international transportation code UN3439.

The investigation also established that in addition to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, various Georgian organizations, including “Aversi-Rational”, “GPS”, “Rustavi Azot” and others, have imported dozens of different types of civilian, industrial and medical cargo with the codes mentioned in the BBC report 606 times over the past 20 years, including the transportation code UN3439 – 507 times and the transportation code UN1710 – 99 times, which are recorded in the accounting databases of the Customs Department.

As for the substance “bromobenzyl cyanide”, also known as “camite”, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs has never purchased such a substance.

The investigation has questioned the people, whose so-called conclusions or information served as the basis for the information disseminated by the BBC about the use of the poisonous chemical substance. During the questioning, absolutely all of them denied that their information or conclusions concerned the poisonous chemical substance “camite”.

According to the authors of the so-called study, they could not establish the fact of the use of “camite” for the simple reason that they had not conducted a research in this direction.

Representatives of medical and expert circles were also questioned as witnesses within the framework of the investigation, and according to the materials obtained from open sources, in order to satisfy the public interest, we can clarify that the use of the substance "bromobenzyl cyanide", also known as "camite", on humans leads to extremely serious and often even lethal consequences, which is why it was banned in the modern civilized world in the 1930s.

Against this background, it is noteworthy that, according to the documents obtained from the Ministry of Health of Georgia in the days following November 28, 2024, out of 54 people transported to stationary medical institutions by emergency medical teams, 5 people had mild intoxication, who were discharged from medical clinics the next day.

The investigation also established that in early December 2024, namely on the night of December 4-5, the substance “chlorobenzylidene malononitrile” was used for crowd control, the solvent of which was “propylene glycol”. None of the above substances belong to the category of prohibited substances.

According to the chemical examination conducted, the substances seized by the investigation from the Special Tasks Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are - 1: the chemical substance “chlorobenzylidene malononitrile”. 2: the chemical substance – “trichloroethylene” (in this case, we are talking about the written-off balance in the amount of 880 liters). 3: the chemical substance – “propylene glycol”.

Of the persons of interest to the investigation, it was not possible to interview the only witness, Lasha Shergelashvili, on whose information the opinions of the author of the story prepared by the BBC were largely based.

It is noteworthy that the State Security Service is conducting operational-search and investigative actions against the aforementioned person in connection with one of the high-profile criminal cases in the recent past, which concerned the fact of the purchase and storage of firearms and ammunition, including the explosive substance TNT, by the accused Beka Chulukhadze.

We would like to remind the public that operational and investigative actions in this case were conducted in parallel with the well-known events of October 4 of this year.

The investigation is intensively working on the version according to which Lasha Shergelashvili, a contract employee of the Ukrainian special services, ordered Beka Chulukhadze to purchase and hide the above-mentioned ammunition, explosives and devices several days before October 4. Shergelashvili is currently in Ukraine.

Thus, the irrefutable evidence obtained by the investigation gives us the basis for drawing a conclusion that the information voiced in the BBC film about the use of the so-called chemical weapon “camite” against protesters in Georgia is deliberate disinformation and serves to harm the interests of Georgia, in which, unfortunately, Georgian citizens are also involved and, together with the authors of the BBC film, their actions are of a well-planned, organized and campaign nature to achieve specific hostile goals against Georgia.

Accordingly, since the investigative actions regarding the use of the substance "camite" banned in the 1930s are over, the State Security Service continues the investigation into a possbile crime, which is provided for by Article 319 of the Criminal Code of Georgia and pertains to assisting a foreign organization in hostile activities.

As the body responsible for the security of any self-respecting state, the State Security Service of Georgia will continue to pay special attention to the issues of political stability and security, as one of the main challenges of our country in the field of security," said Maghradze.