Three Georgian photojournalists were accused on Saturday of passing secret information regarding the movements of President Mikheil Saakashvili to Russian intelligence and were charged with espionage. The case is being followed closely by media watchdogs and rights groups.
Reporters Without Borders on Friday warned against allowing the fear of spies that pervades the former Soviet republic to fuel "a climate of intimidation in the media". The three - Saakashvili's personal photographer Irakli Gedenidze, freelancer Giorgi Abdaladze and Zurab Kurtsikidze of the European Pressphoto Agency - were charged in the early hours of Saturday, their lawyers said. They were remanded in custody for two months pending trial.
A fourth, Gedenidze's photographer wife Natia, was released but declined to talk to reporters. Georgia has vigorously defended the arrests, denying they were politically motivated or an attack on press freedom. They are the latest of dozens of arrests of suspected Russian spies since Georgia and Russia fought a brief war over rebel South Ossetia in August 2008. Moscow has accused Saakashvili's government of trying to whip up anti-Russian hysteria. In a statement, the Interior Ministry accused Kurtsikidze of having links with Russia's powerful military intelligence service known by its Russian acronym GRU. It said he was given secret information by Gedenidze and Abdaladze, who worked as a contract photographer for the Georgian Foreign Ministry, "which he was passing to Moscow".
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