Two Others Held on Arms Charges

The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) said on March 24, that police arrested two persons on illegal arms purchase charges, who could have been planning a coup.

Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said that case was not related with the one involving arrest of ten other persons, with nine of them from former parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze’s opposition party.

The case, put forth by the Interior Ministry, however, would most likely be considered in the context of the opposition’s planned protest rallies in April.

“Today we are presenting evidence regarding two persons – Malkhaz Gvelukashvili and Lasha Chkhenkeli. In evidences you will see concrete people, concrete plans and concrete groups and also some indication of the sources of funding. We are at the very earliest stage of investigation, so we cannot yet make any conclusions,” Utiashvili told journalists.

The evidence put forth by the Ministry involves several separate, covertly recorded video and audio recordings in which two men – Gvelukashvili and Chkhenkeli, as claimed by the Interior Ministry – are discussing with undercover agents, acting as arms dealers, terms for purchase of firearms and bulletproof jackets for 60 men. In one of the video footage a man, claimed to be Gvelukashvili, tells ‘arms dealer’ that he needs firearms for 60 men and also says that the group would take control over the Tbilisi TV tower in April, when the opposition parties plan to launch a protest rally to demand President Saakashvili’s resignation.

Malkhaz Gvelukashvili is a member of the Movement for Salvation of Georgia, a group set up late last year, which has not been at all an active player in the Georgian politics.

Gvelukashvili, who according to his friends and relatives is a metaphysician, has not been engaged in the politics. But his name is familiar among readers of number of Georgian tabloids in which he used to write articles criticizing the authorities; and in some press interviews he was analyzing prophesies of Nostradamus. In one of such interviews with the Georgian-language weekly Georgian Times few years ago, Gvelukashvili was claiming that the third world war would be inevitable by 2010, which he claimed, would not concern Georgia at all, as by that time the country might have wise leaders. He was also predicting that India, Russia, Turkey and EU would disintegrate by 2010. His relatives and acquaintances said they were shocked and surprised to learn about the charges brought against Gvelukashvili; they also said that they did not believe in allegations.

Gvelukashvili and Chkhenkeli face coup plot charges.

Utiashvili said that investigation was ongoing, including on finding out sources of funding. In one of the audio recordings presented by the Interior Ministry a man, claimed to be Gvelukashvili, says that he contacted “them abroad” and complained about lack of money. “They told me that 150,000 is already coming,” the man says.

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