The Tbilisi City Court ordered Bacho Akhalaia, former Defense Minister under Mikheil Saakashvili and currently in pretrial detention, to be remanded in custody on charges of organizing the attack on the presidential palace in Tbilisi on October 4, Georgian public broadcaster Channel One reported.
The court hearing was held behind closed doors at the request of the State Security Service of Georgia (SSS). Akhalaia refused and left the courtroom in protest.
SSS officers arrested the former minister on December 25 in his Tbilisi apartment. Investigators allege that Akhalaia was the main organizer of the attempted attack on the presidential palace on October 4.
According to the State Security Service, law enforcement officials reviewed his correspondence with other organizers and participants in the attack on the presidential palace, as well as his phone calls. The State Security Service clarified that the IP address through which Akhalaia communicated with his accomplices belongs to his wife, Ani Nadareishvili.