Priest arrested in plot to poison head of church
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Prosecutors in Georgia say they have detained a senior cleric who is suspected of plotting to poison the head of the country's Orthodox Church.
Irakli Shotadze, chief prosecutor in the former Soviet republic, told reporters on Monday that Father Georgi Mamaladze was arrested at the Tbilisi airport on Friday with cyanide in his suitcase. Mamaladze, chief of the property department of the Georgian Orthodox Church, was on his way to Germany where head of the church Patriarch Ilia 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.