Georgia Says Arrested Six People Suspected of Trying to Sell Uranium

The Georgian State Security Service distributed this photo, which it said, is a container with Uranium 238 seized in Tbilisi, and bearing radioactive warning label and inscriptions in Russian.

Six people – three Georgian and three Armenian citizens – were arrested while trying to sell radioactive Uranium-238, the Georgian State Security Service said on Monday.

“These individuals were planning to sell nuclear material Uranium (U238) for 200 million USD in Tbilisi, when they were detained,” the Georgian security agency said, adding that court ordered pre-trial detention of all six people on April 16.

The State Security Service has declined to give the amount of Uranium-238, stored in a container, which, it said, was found in one of the arrested person’s home. The security agency has also declined to report other details of the case.

It said that the State Security Service’s counter-intelligence unit continues investigation, which is carried out under the article 230 of the Georgian criminal code, involving illegal handling and selling of radioactive material.

Davit Abesadze, a defense lawyer of one of the detained Georgians who is in his mid-70s, told Imedi TV that his client denies charges. 

In January the Georgian State Security Service reported about the arrest of three men accused of trying to sell radioactive substance Cesium-137.

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