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The News in Brief

Friday, January 25
Reshuffle in State Security Service Continues

The State Security Service, Georgia’s domestic counterintelligence agency, reported on January 19 that Aleksandre Khojevanishvili, who served as the Head of the Interior Ministry’s General Inspection since 2017, replaced Grigol Liluashvili as the Deputy Head of the State Security Service. Liluashvili was promoted to the position of the First Deputy Head of the State Security Service.

Liluashvili, served as the Deputy Head of the State Security Service since 2017, so his promotion comes as no surprise. Notably, however, the post of the First Deputy was vacated by Ioseb Gogashvili, whose resignation was earlier reported by several media outlets. The Security Service’s press release said nothing about that resignation.

Gogashvili’s name was associated with a double operation in Tbilisi and Pankisi gorge of Akhmeta district in November and December 2017, respectively, when several persons were apprehended on charges of assisting the group of terror suspects, who allegedly plotted attacks on diplomatic missions in Georgia and Turkey. Temirlan Machalikashvili, one of the suspects, was shot in the head during the operation and succumbed to his injuries two weeks later.

In the course of last year, Machalikashvili’s father, Malkhaz, emerged as a prominent figure alongside Zaza Saralidze, father of the murdered teen in Khorava street murder, protesting against police violence and demanding higher scrutiny over police and prosecution. In December 2018, defense lawyers of Machalikashvili family called for the Parliamentary probe into the matter. (civil.ge)



20 students may fail exams due to Abkhazia's flu quarantine

Due to the closure of the Enguri checkpoint, students from breakaway Abkhazia’s Gali district are unable to pass their exams, which may result in their expulsion from the university.

The problems come on the heel of a quarantine declared in early January by Georgia’s two breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia in order to prevent the spread of the influenza virus H1N1 from Georgia proper.

At least 20 students are now at risk of failing their exams because of the quarantine, according to information available to DFWatch based on multiple interviews with residents of the town Gali and its vicinity, the area predominantly populated by ethnic Georgians.

An MB student at a university in Tbilisi said that despite many attempts, she wasn’t allowed to crossing the ‘border’.

“I visited my family [in Gali] for the New Year holidays when the border was closed,” she said. “Winter [exams] have already begun in my university, but I can’t attend. The other students who failed to cross the ‘border’ before the closure are facing the same problem.”

The vast majority of Gali youth opt to study at universities in Tbilisi or other places in Georgia proper. Most of the higher educational institutions in Georgia have exams in January and June. Failing to pass the exams may result in fines or even expulsion.

Most of the stranded students have already asked their universities to take into account their troubles. (df watch)