Three Georgian photojournalists, including the president’s personal photographer, have been charged with espionage for allegedly giving secret data to Russia, officials in Tbilisi said yesterday.

The interior ministry alleged that confidential documents, plans and pictures gathered by the photographers were passed to military intelligence agency officers from pro-Western Georgia’s bitter enemy Russia. President Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal photographer Irakli Gedenidze, Foreign Ministry photographer Giorgi Abdaladze and European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) photographer Zurab Kurtsikidze were arrested in overnight raids on Thursday.

“The investigation has concluded that Zurab Kurtsikidze had links with the defence ministry intelligence services of the Russian Federation,” an interior ministry statement said.

It said Gedenidze and Abdaladze took photographs of secret documents they accessed through their work for the state, which Kurtsikidze then sent to Moscow.

Georgia fought a war with Russia in 2008 and has repeatedly accused Moscow of running espionage operations on its territory.

The ministry said counter-intelligence officers found confidential information about the president’s movements, details of his meetings and plans of his administration building when the photographers’ homes were searched.

The interior ministry website posted a video recording of Gedenidze’s statement to police, in which he said he had given photographs to Kurtsikidze but had done so under pressure.

“I realised it was something to do with special services and my suspicion was further strengthened because I knew he was sending the photographs to (a photographic agency in) Moscow,” Gedenidze said in the recording.