Georgia detains six it says were trying to sell uranium

  18 April 2016    Read: 993
Georgia detains six it says were trying to sell uranium
Georgia`s security service said on Monday it had detained six Georgian and Armenian citizens who were trying to sell $200 million worth of uranium-238.
Georgia`s security service did not say whether the group had a buyer for the uranium. Nor did it say where the group had acquired it.

However, Georgia is a former member of the Soviet Union, and world leaders have been concerned about the security of Soviet nuclear weapons since it broke up in 1991.

"Officers of Georgia`s State Security Service detained three citizens of Armenia and three citizens of Georgia," security service investigator Savle Motiashvili told a briefing.

"The members of the group were planning to sell the nuclear material, uranium-238, for $200 million when they were detained," he told a news briefing.

Motiashvili added that a prefabricated container meant for transporting the Uranium-238 was found at one of the detainee`s apartment.

"Given the gamma ray emission, the identity of the source and radiological expertise report, the seized substance is dangerous for life and health," he said.

A Tbilisi city court sentenced members of the group to pre-trial detention. They face five to 10 years in prison if proved guilty.

Georgia`s security service has stopped several attempts to sell uranium or other radioactive materials. In 2006, a resident of Russia`s North Ossetia region was arrested for trying to sell weapons-grade uranium for $1 million to agents he thought were radical Islamists. He was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison.

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