Two Spy Suspects Released on Bail

Two citizens of Georgia, arrested and charged with espionage and setting up of an illegal armed group, have been released on bail, according to the Georgian Interior Ministry.

“Investigation is ongoing and the case is not closed,” Shota Khizanishvili, the interior ministry spokesman, told Civil.Ge on March 12.

Grigol Minasyan and Sarkis Akopjanyan were arrested on January 22; the Interior Ministry has declined since then to reveal details of the case. The two men were arrested in Akhaltsikhe, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region predominantly with ethnic Armenian population.

The lawyer for the two men, Nino Andriashvili, told IWPR last month that Minasyan and Akopjanyan were accused of cooperating with a Belarus-based organization allegedly set up by Russia’s Federal Security Service, called the Association for Legal Assistance to the Population (ALAP.) The lawyer also said the two men had admitted being involved in espionage, but denied a secondary charge of planning to create a private army.

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