The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Grigol Vashadze has called jailed Armenian activist Vahagn Chakhalyan a spy, during the minister’s recent visit to France.

In fact, Chakhalyan is imprisoned on weapons and other charges, but not espionage.

Answering a question posed by a group within the National Assembly of France, the minister said:

“The citizen of Georgia of Armenian origin, whom you have mentioned, has been arrested based on very serious charges: he was delivering information to a third country. I have no right to mention which country,” said Georgian FM.

Chakhalyan was arrested in July 2008, following a car bomb blast near the home of the chief of police in Akhalkalak, the provincial center of the mostly Armenian-populated region of Samtskhe-Javakheti in southern Georgia.

The Georgian court found Chakhalyan guilty of several crimes under the Criminal Code of Georgia, including “acquisition and possession of firearms and ammunition”, “organizing a group action which grossly disrupted public order”, and “hooliganism committed against a government representative.” These are the three articles according to which Chkhalyan, leader of the ‘United Javakhk Democratic Alliance’ political movement was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.

“There is only one reason why Vashadze acts that way. They try to threaten Europeans by means of spreading disinformation, taking into consideration the fact that the interest towards this case increases abroad” says Yerkir’ Union program coordinator Robert Tatoyan. (Yerkir Union has taken up defense of Chakhalyan, saying he is illegally jailed and that he was mistreated during his trial.)

Vashadze also stated that the court decided to reject the involvement of a French attorney solicited for the case, because the involvement of foreign attorneys is banned by the legislation of Georgia. But: the law itself was adopted after Chakhalyan applied for the help of the French attorney and many believe that the law was deliberately adopted to deprive Chakhalyan.

The Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France (CCAF) has agreed to lobby for Chakhalyan’s interests in reference to the comments by Georgia’s foreign minister.