The former head of the State Security Service of Georgia was found guilty this week of accepting more than $2 million in bribes and sentenced to 13 years in prison, as a corruption crackdown continues against former senior officials from the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Grigol Liluashvili, who headed the security service from 2019 until 2025, was arrested last December following raids on his home and those of two other former ruling party elites.
Tbilisi City Court Judge Nino Tarashvili on Wednesday found Liluashvili guilty of “accepting bribes on an especially large scale,” said the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia’s press release announcing the verdict.
Liluashvili’s lawyer Lana Tsertsvadze reacted outside the courtroom, telling reporters it was an “unjust verdict” that she would appeal.
“The defense and Mr. Grigol Liluashvili anticipated an acquittal because there was not a single piece of evidence in the case to prove his guilt,” Tsertsvadze said in a video interview. “Mr. Grigol Liluashvili will seek to establish his innocence through legal avenues. This unfounded, unlawful, and unjust decision will be challenged in the Court of Appeals.”
The Tbilisi City Court accepted prosecutor evidence alleging four instances of bribery, including one in which he took $1,365,000 between 2021 and 2022 in exchange for using his official authority to protect a scam call center operated by an organized crime group in Tbilisi.
Prosecutors alleged in two other instances he used a former deputy minister as an intermediary to receive more than $1 million in 2022 in exchange for lobbying for a proposed wind power plant construction project and a winning gasification tender.
In the fourth and final alleged instance of bribery, prosecutors indicted Liluashvili for taking a share of 5,325,943 lari (roughly $2million) in kickbacks collected on procurement contracts between 2018 and 2023.
The case adds to a wider unraveling of senior Georgian Dream members. Since late last year, the government has pursued 10 major cases against former high-ranking ruling party officials, including former Prime Minister Garibashvili, who is serving a five-year sentence for money laundering in a January plea deal.
