Malkhaz Machalikashvili suspected of preparing terror act

The State Security Service (SSS) of Georgia has reported that Malkhaz Machalikashvili, the father of Temirlan Machalikashvili, killed during a special operation in Pankisi, had the intention to commit a terror act. Machalikashvili himself has treated the SSS' statement as absurd.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported, referring to Georgian law enforcers, that on May 31, 2018, Malkhaz Machalikashvili, the father of the 19-year-old Temirlan, shot dead during a special operation in Pankisi, stated at an action in Tbilisi that he had sworn, together with several hundred people, to blow up himself in the building of the Georgian SSS, but changed his mind because of his love of Georgians. In June 2018, the SSS launched an investigation into the Machalikashvili's statement.

Malkhaz Machalikashvili has been accused of plotting a terror act in Georgia, Nino Giogobiani, the head of one of SSS' departments, said in a statement posted on May 7 on the SSS' website.

"The terror act had been planned in the village of Zemo Machkhaani of the Dedoplistskaro District (Kakheti Region) at the grave of Ioseb Gogashvili, the father of a former First Deputy Head of the SSS," the SSS' statement says.

Malkhaz Machalikashvili himself told the correspondent of the Rustavi-2" that he watched the news about the SSS' statement in a tent set up near the parliament. According to his version, the assertion that he had prepared a terror act is absurd and looks like a provocation.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 8, 2019 at 02:19 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.