Okhanashvili Appoints his Deputies in State Security Service
The newly appointed GD head of State Security Service, Anri Okhanashvili, named his three deputies on April 5, following his replacement of Grigol Liluashvili earlier in the week. The new GD deputy chiefs are Irakli Beraia, Gela Geladze and Levan Kharanauli.
Irakli Beraia, was appointed head of the Georgian Intelligence Service on April 5, 2024. A long-serving member of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Beraia has served in Parliament since 2016. From 2016 to 2019, he was the first deputy chairman of the parliamentary Defense and Security committee. From 2015 to 2016, he headed the Information and Analytical Department of the State Security Service. Earlier in his career, he held senior positions at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he headed the Reforms and Development Department from 2012 to 2015. In 2007, he served as the head of the National Investment Agency under the Ministry of Economic Development.
Beraia was at the center of controversy in October 2023 after verbally attacking opposition MP Teona Akubardia during a parliamentary session. The altercation followed the opposition’s criticism of the Georgian delegation’s failure to support a pro-Georgia amendment at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. In a widely condemned remark, Beraia said: “I urge this person to refrain from mentioning me and my committee with her long tongue, wherever it has been.”
Gela Geladze, another newly named GD deputy chief, had been serving as Deputy Minister of Education and Science since 2023. He has been working in the Ministry of Education since 2018 as the Head of the LEPL (legal entity of public law) Office of Resource Officers of Educational Institutions. From 2016 to 2018, he served as the Head of Division in the Central Criminal Police Department at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Before that, from 2012 to 2016, he was the Deputy Head of the National Probation Agency of the Ministry of Corrections and Probation of Georgia.
Levan Kharanauli, the third appointed deputy, previously served under Okhanashvili at the Ministry of Justice, where he was Deputy Minister. Kharanauli, who holds a doctorate in law, is also an associate professor at the Tbilisi State University Faculty of Law.
On April 2, Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze appointed Anri Okhanashvili as head of the State Security Service. Okhanashvili previously served as Minister of Justice and Chairman of the parliamentary committee on Legal Issues.
Also Read:
- 04/04/2025 – GD Drops Security Chief Liluashvili as Minister Pick
- 02/04/2025 – GD Cabinet Reshuffled
- 25/11/2024 – PM Kobakhidze Nominates Three New Cabinet Members
- 25/09/2024 – GD’s Longest-Serving Minister, Tsulukiani, Resigns
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