EurasiaNet, NY
March 12 2009

GEORGIA FREES ALLEGED ETHNIC ARMENIAN "SPIES"
3/12/09

Georgian police have released on bail two ethnic Armenian community
activists who were charged with espionage and attempting to set up a
paramilitary organization in the predominantly ethnic Armenian region
of Samtskhe -Javakheti. Reasons for the release were not immediately
clear.

Grigol Minasian and Sarkis Hakopianian were freed on a 2,000 lari
(roughly $1,181) bail and a one-year suspended prison sentence,
Armenia’s Public Radio reported on March 12.

The two men, arrested in January, had pled guilty to espionage, but
denied trying to set up an armed group, the pair’s lawyer, Nino
Andriashvili told EurasiaNet last month. [For details, see the Eurasia
Insight archive].

In a separate interview, a Samtskhe-Javakheti police official, who
asked not to be named, told EurasiaNet that the two had admitted to
cooperating with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). Speaking
with Public Radio of Armenia, Minasian said that the pair had promised
Georgian Interior Ministry officials "not to give details and reveal
the details of the case."

"Armenia and Georgia are two parts of my heart and my activity was not
consciously targeted against their interests, but [the] investigation
has shown that I have committed a crime," Minasian went on to
say. Minasian and Hakopianian had reportedly been paid to fill out a
survey by the Belarus-based Association for Legal Assistance to the
Population.

The pair’s arrest sparked an outcry in Armenia, where some
parliamentarians accused Georgian authorities of bullying the
country’s Armenian minority. Despite repeat allegations that Russia is
trying to stir ethnic tensions within Georgia, Georgian Interior
Ministry officials have released little information about the case.