Georgia's archpriest detained on charges of preparing assassination

Georgian police Monday detained a high-profile priest who is suspected of plotting to poison a senior cleric, Georgia's Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze said on Monday.

Shotadze announced at a press briefing that the Prosecutors Office arrested Archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze last Friday on charges of planning "a murder of a high-ranking cleric."

According to him, Mamaladze was arrested at the Tbilisi airport with cyanide in his suitcase. Mamaladze, chief of the property department of the Georgian Orthodox Church, was on his way to Germany where Georgia's Patriarch Ilia, head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, is undergoing hospital treatment.

Shotadze said the arrest was made after prosecutors received a tip from a man who reported that he had been contacted by a priest looking to buy cyanide. Police also found weapons at Mamaladze's home.

The issue is still under investigation, said the Prosecutor.

Local media speculate that Patriarch Ilia was the "senior cleric" in the statement.

Responding the case, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili issued a statement, saying the country had "avoided a huge disaster by preventing the crime".

The Prime Minister admitted that he had sent the head of the Special State Protection Service, the agency in charge of providing security to high-ranking officials and state facilities, to Berlin step up security there. Enditem