The Tbilisi City Court ruled on January 24 to send to pretrial detention Anatoli Berdzenishvili who was arrested on charges of assisting the group of terror suspects, who allegedly plotted attacks on diplomatic missions in Georgia and Turkey.

The court considered that there were “risks of committing a new crime, hiding oneself and destroying evidence,” and therefore, it deemed reasonable to apply imprisonment as a penalty.

Anatoli Berdzenishvili, who denies charges, was detained by the Counter-terrorism Department of the State Security Service on January 22.

According to case materials, Anatoli Berdzenishvili, together with Zurab Gornakashvili and Zurab Idoidze, who were detained earlier, traveled to Turkey and drove ISIS member Ahmed Chatayev and his group members to the Kirnati-Maradidi section of the Turkish-Georgian border.

The investigation is underway under Part 3 of Article 331¹of the Criminal Code of Georgia, involving funding and assisting terrorist activities, which is punishable by imprisonment for any term of not more than 20 years or less than 17 years, or by life imprisonment.

Anatoli Berdzenishvili is the sixth person detained on charges of assisting Ahmed Chatayev’s group. Five other persons suspected of assisting Chatayev’s group members have already been sentenced to pretrial custody. Another suspect, Temirlan Machalikashvili, was shot during the detention operation and succumbed to his injuries on January 10.