Today President Mikheil Saakashvili commented on the arrest of the employee of the President's administration, Simon Kiladze, suspected of passing secret information to the special services of an unnamed foreign country, stating that the Georgian counter-intelligence service has firm evidence proving that this person was engaged in activities directed against Georgia.
"Since independence no-one in Georgia's government agencies has ever been arrested on spy charges. This period is now over. I fear that this may not be the last person in the government agencies, according to the information I have, to be arrested for such activity. These people should know one thing. They are not working against a specific president or a specific government but against their own country, against the future of our children and for the benefit of our opponents. But the good news is that for each such person there are very many Georgian patriots, including patriots in the law-enforcement agencies, who are busy dealing with this," President Saakashvili said, stressing that the government has lots of information on many people who are engaged in similar activities. "I want to tell everyone that we have such information about very many people. We are giving the people who are currently working against their own country one month, approximately until 1 May, or, rather, exactly until 1 May, to contact the counterintelligence service. If they cooperate, I am giving them a guarantee - I have discussed this with the prosecutor-general and I want them to provide the necessary clarifications - I am giving them a guarantee of absolute immunity. Regardless of what they have done up until now, not a single hair of their heads will be hurt. We do not want to ruin people's lives. These people should know that we have a lot of information but we want them to cooperate with their own state in the national interest. In that case, they will face no threat. However, the time when there was complete freedom for such activity is now over. Georgia is no longer a territory but a state. This state has its own interests and security. This state, unfortunately, also has ill-wishers who want this state to be completely destroyed and finally brought to its knees. These people should not be allowed to succeed.
I want to reassure the public and tell everyone that we have a very effective law-enforcement system and a good counterintelligence service. I want to tell these people to take this last chance before it is too late and start to cooperate with Georgia's law-enforcement agencies by the end of next month", the President Saakashvili said.
This translation is published with permission from BBC Monitoring, Reading UK
Communications Office
of the President of Georgia