A court in Russia's southern city of Rostov-on-Don has found an ethnic Georgian serviceman guilty of spying for Tbilisi.
Private Jemal Nakaidze was sentenced to nine years in jail for supplying intelligence to Georgia security services, the Vesti news service reported on October 16. Prosecutors claimed that Nakaidze was recruited in February 2008 in exchange for an unnamed financial remuneration and an apartment in the Georgian seaside resort of Batumi, the Kavkazsky Uzel news service reported.
One day earlier, authorities in Russian-backed Abkhazia stepped up efforts to expose Georgian spies allegedly operating in breakaway Abkhazia, which is still home to a significant number of ethnic Georgians. In September, Abkhazia's Supreme Court sentenced Diana Shedania, a 40-year old woman from the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi, to 19 years in prison for alleged espionage for Georgia.
Tbilisi, in turn, has arrested a number of people since the 2008 Georgia-Russia war on charges of cooperating with the Russian security services.
