Photo: Sputnik/Sergey Pyatakov
The chief of the Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarchate’s Property Management Service, priest Georgy Mamaladze has been detained on charges of plotting the murder of a church hierarch, Georgian Chief Prosecutor Irakly Shotadze said Monday, reports.
The Rustavi 2 TV company reported Sunday about a possible attempt to poison Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II. According to the report, Mamaladze was detained at Tbilisi airport on Friday night, later he was arrested.
“Georgy Mamaladze had a systematic relationship with the Catholicos-Patriarch and his entourage. The investigation established that Mamaladze had been preparing the murder of a person and that was why he had bought from an unknown person the poisonous substance cyanide,” Shotadze told reporters.
The chief prosecutor added that the detained official of the Georgian patriarchate had planned to take the poisonous substance to Germany, where Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II is undergoing treatment.