Former head of the State Security Service Grigol Liluashvili has been arrested.

Prosecutor General Giorgi Gvarakidze made the relevant statement at the briefing at the Prosecutor's Office. According to him, Liluashvili is accused of taking bribes in several criminal cases pending at the Prosecutor's Office.

As Giorgi Gvarakidze noted, the Prosecutor's Office will apply to the court within the time limit established by law to impose pre-trial detention on the accused.

"As a result of joint operational and investigative actions conducted by the Prosecutor General's Office of Georgia and the State Security Service, the former head of the State Security Service, Grigol Liluashvili, has been arrested, who is accused of taking bribes in several criminal cases.

The first episode: In October 2022, he received a bribe of 1 million USD from Turkish investor Chagatai Ulker through Romeo Mikautadze, the then First Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, in order to lobby him to sign a memorandum of understanding related to the construction of wind power plants.

The second episode: In February 2022, also through Romeo Mikautadze, he demanded and extorted one million five hundred thousand GEL from Giorgi Khazhalia, the founder of the company "Express Service 2008", in exchange for assistance in gasification tenders.

The third episode concerns the years 2021-2023, when, despite the legal battle declared by the state in this direction, several dozen fraudulent call centers still remained in the country. According to witness testimonies, the vast majority of these call centers belonged to a group of individuals who financed various opposition media outlets from the income they received, while the main patron of a relatively small part of the call centers was Grigol Liluashvili, who carried out this activity through his relative, Sandro Liluashvili.

As a result of the aforementioned criminal activity, Grigol Liluashvili received approximately 1,365,000 USD in the form of a bribe, through the mediation of Sandro Liluashvili.

We hereby inform the public that given the aforementioned factual circumstances, the investigation, along with collecting evidence against other individuals involved in the criminal scheme, is intensively working on the version according to which Grigol Liluashvili, together with other accomplices, ensured that the existence of fraudulent call centers financing opposition media outlets was not disclosed, while opposition media outlets, in turn, did not report information about the existence of fraudulent call centers under Liluashvili's protection, despite the fact that they had this information.

Fourth episode: Grigol Liluashvili, using his official position, provided protection to his friend, the former director of the Tbilisi City Hall Kindergarten Management Agency, Kakha Gvantseladze, in exchange for taking a bribe, who received particularly large bribes from entrepreneurial entities in the form of bribes in the signing of procurement contracts for kindergartens.

In the aforementioned criminal scheme of Liluashvili-Gvantseladze, Kakhaber Gvantseladze involved the agency’s financial accounting and calculation, as well as monitoring employees. A decree has been issued against all of them to bring them to criminal liability as defendants.

Hundreds of investigative actions have been carried out in the criminal case, including the questioning of witnesses, whose testimonies confirm the fact of the crime committed by Grigol Liluashvili and others. Various evidence confirming the crime, including video and audio recordings, has also been seized.

Grigol Liluashvili is charged under Article 338, Part 2, Subparagraph “c” and Part 3, Subparagraph “e” of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which involves taking a bribe in a particularly large amount by a group, by prior agreement, and provides for a sentence of 11 to 15 years in prison.

The prosecutor's office will apply to the court within the time limit established by law with a request to impose pre-trial detention on the accused.

The investigation into the case continues with the aim of revealing other crimes committed by Grigol Liluashvili and identifying and detaining persons involved in the alleged crimes.

Georgian law enforcement officers continue to fight corruption in order to reduce it to a historical minimum and prevent it as much as possible, - Gvarakidze said.

As is known, before the briefing, the former head of the State Security Service, Grigol Liluashvili, came to the Prosecutor's Office for questioning.