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Georgia arrests photographers ‘in spying case’

Georgia on Thursday arrested four news photographers, including President Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal photographer, on accusations of spying for a foreign country, the interior ministry said.

“The arrested are accused of passing information that they obtained because of their work to an organisation acting undercover for the intelligence services of a foreign country, against the interests of Georgia,” it said.

The four detained included Saakashvili’s personal photographer Irakli Gedenidze, the statement said. Gedenidze has taken a large number of pictures printed in the international media of Saakashvili.

“Very serious charges will be put forward,” Deputy Interior Minister Eka Zguladze told AFP, saying that the investigation into the alleged espionage was still under way.

However a photographer working for the Associated Press who was also arrested overnight was released without charge.

Those who remain under arrest are European Pressphoto Agency photographer Zurab Kurtsikidze, Foreign Ministry press centre photographer Giorgi Abdaladze, and Gedenidze’s wife, local newspaper photographer Natia Gedenidze.

Local media reported that relatives of the detained said police had seized computers and other equipment when they raided the photographers’ homes during the night.

“They searched all the rooms, took the computers, my father’s laptop and child’s computer, also all cell phones of the family members, all compact discs,” Giorgi Abdaladze’s wife Nestan Neidze told the InterPressNews agency.

Georgia has often accused its arch foe Russia of operating spy networks on its territory.

In November, Georgian officials said they had busted a major spy ring that was providing secret information on the country’s armed forces to the Russian military’s foreign intelligence service, the GRU.

Officials said the ring had been smashed in a cloak-and-dagger operation that saw Georgian security services infiltrate the GRU through a former Soviet army officer working as a double agent.

Tensions between Moscow and Georgia’s pro-Western government remain high after the brief war between the ex-Soviet neighbours in 2008, with Tbilisi also accusing Moscow of organising a series of bomb blasts on its territory.