Security Service Says Machalikashvili Plotted Terror Attack

Georgia’s State Security Service informs that Malkhaz Machalikashvili, a father of a 19-year-old Temirlan Machalikashvili killed during a special operation in Pankisi Gorge in 2017, was plotting a terror attack.

The agency reports that the man asked Moris Machalikashvili, his nephew to be involved in the act.

The SSS says as a result of the evidence,  the terrorist act was being planned in the village Zemo Machkhaani of Dedophlistskaro region, at the grave of late father of Ioseb Gogashvili, former first deputy head of the State Security Service, while Gogashvili and his accompanying persons being there, that would have claimed their and other citizens’ lives.

“It is confirmed, that on March 23, 2019, Malkhaz Machalikashvili himself instructed Moris Machalikashvili to abandon any other activities and work only on one person – Ioseb Gogashvili. Moris Machalikashvili had to identify the residential addresses of Ioseb Gogashvili, his travel routes, also he was tasked to travel to the cemetery in order to establish the location of the grave of father of Gogashvili and take pictures, whilst, on the basis of obtained information, Malkhaz Machalikashvili would have planned other activities,” the SSS says.

The agency also released an audio recording of a phone conversation between Machalikashvili and his nephew.

Machalikashvili refuses to go to the SSS for questioning. He says the released audio is a fabrication and the authorities aim at destructing him because he has been constantly demanding proper investigation of his son’s murder case.

By Thea Morrison