A student from South Ossetia has been arrested in Tbilisi on espionage charges.

A Tbilisi court has remanded Tamaz Goloev, a student at South Ossetian State University, in custody for two months on espionage charges. According to the Georgian State Security Service, he was collecting information about law enforcement agencies and strategic infrastructure.

As reported by the Caucasian Knot, counterintelligence officers have detained a Georgian citizen for spying for foreign intelligence agencies, and two others have been charged in absentia.

The State Security Service reported that one of those arrested on espionage charges is 27-year-old Tamaz Goloev, a Georgian citizen and resident of Akhalgori (Tskhinvali Region). According to the State Security Service, he was collecting information about law enforcement agencies and strategic infrastructure on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency, JamNews reports.

Goloev's mother says he arrived in Tbilisi from Akhalgori on April 22 and was immediately detained, which she learned about on television. She attempted to meet with him, but law enforcement officers prevented her from doing so. She believes her son is innocent and notes that she did not notice anything suspicious in his behavior, Paper Kartuli reports.

On April 24, in a closed hearing, the Tbilisi City Court ordered Tamaz Goloev, a resident of the Leningori District of the Republic of South Ossetia, to be remanded in custody for two months, TASS reports.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on South Ossetian citizens to refrain from traveling to Georgia

The South Ossetian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Goloev, a student at the A.A. Tibilov South Ossetian State University, entered Georgia on personal business through the Razdakhæn checkpoint, located in the Leningor district of South Ossetia on the border with Georgia. On April 22, Goloev was detained in Tbilisi as a result of a provocation by Georgian security services and placed under arrest. According to the ministry, he is a South Ossetian citizen.

The South Ossetian side has used its available resources to clarify Goloev's fate, including through the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) hotline. As a result,

"We regard such completely unjustified actions of the Georgian repressive apparatus, which are of a blatantly political nature, as a gross violation of the rights of T. Goloev and a continuation of the policy of terror," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, demanding the release of the young man.

"What happened to T. Goloev is clear evidence that the territory of Georgia, despite the occasional "peaceful" voices heard from representatives of official Tbilisi, was and remains dangerous and hostile for South Ossetia and its residents. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Ossetia strongly recommends that residents of South Ossetia refrain from traveling to Georgia for security reasons," the statement said.

We recall that earlier the State Security Service of Abkhazia stated that Georgian citizen Emzar Bagishvili was detained on March 10, and on March 12 a case was opened against him. espionage. Bagishvili is suspected of collecting and transmitting information concerning the socio-political situation in Abkhazia, as well as military equipment and transport routes.