Saakashvili’s personal photographer confesses spying for Russia

PanARMENIAN.Net - The personal photographer to the Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili was shown on television Saturday, July 9, confessing to supplying a colleague with secret information on the country's president which was sent to a Russian secret service.

Irakli Gedenidze confessed to supplying another photographer, Zurab Kurtsikidze with the secret information for unspecified remuneration. His wife Natia said she knew her husband was friends with Kurtsikidze and sent him the details of his bank account, but she did not confess to taking part in their dealings, The Associated Press reported.

Irakli Gedenidze, Kurtsikidze and another photographer, Georgy Abdaladze, were charged with espionage early Saturday. Natia Gedenidze was released without charge.

Georgian police spokesman Georgy Bukhrashvili told reporters Saturday that investigators believe Kurtsikidze, a photographer for European Pressphoto Agency, had "connections" with Russia's military intelligence unit, GRU, and hired the other two photographers to provide secret information on the president's schedule, his motorcade's route and his administration building. Bukhrashvili said the two men had taken pictures of the secret documents and then sent them to Kurtsikidze to dispatch to Moscow. The photographs with the classified information were found in the two men's apartments, the police spokesman said.

Gedenidze and his wife were shown on national television on Saturday,

The presidential photographer said in the televised statement that he had to agree to Kurtsikidze's final request to find information on Georgian secret services after the EPA photographer had started blackmailing him, threatening to make public their earlier dealings.