Detained clergyman accuses State Security Service official of trapping him
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, June 22
A detained clergyman in the notorious cyanide case, Giorgi Mamaladze, has accused the deputy head of the State Security Service, Ioseb Gogashvili, of inventing charges against him.
Mamaladze, who is now in detention for the attempted murder of the Patriarch’s Secretary Shorena Tetruashvili, says Tetruashvili and Archbishop Jacob staged a scenario to “unlawfully send him to prison” and Gogashvili helped them to meet their goal.
In a letter sent from prison Mamaladze, who was deputy chairman of the Patriarchate’s Property Management Service, says Tetruashvili and the Archbishop wanted him behind bars as he knew too much about the property-related violations in the Patriarchate.
He also says the two did not want Patriarch Ilia II to know about the violations committed by them and other figures in the patriarchate.
Mamaladze claims that Gogashvili’s son’s godfather is Archbishop Jacob, and he supported the secretary and the Archbishop to trap him.
Some members of the church claim that Mamaladze knew about various financial and property-related violations within the church, which is why he was “trapped by some people involved in illegalities”. They named Tetruashvili as a “key wrongdoer”, as well as Archbishop Jacob.
If Mamaladze is found guilty, he will face 18-20 years in prison.
