The Georgian pro-opposition Formula TV has claimed, citing the alleged leaks, that the Georgian State Security Service (SSS) wiretapped the EU and Israeli ambassadors in Georgia as well as some US embassy employees.

Numerous files allegedly leaked from the SSS were posted online anonymously on 13 September. The files supposedly contain information on clerics, including their private life, obtained through tapping from 2014 to now - under the rule of the Georgian Dream party.

Georgian Dream, however, dismissed the files as a "fabrication."

The leaked files, as Formula claimed, contain conversations by the EU and Israeli ambassadors as well as their conversations with embassy staff.

"All these conversations are related to the Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church, and presumably, therefore, they were included in the files," Formula said in a report posted on its website, Formulanews.ge, on 15 September.

Another report on Formulanews.ge posted on the same day said that the leaked files also contained transcripts of US embassy employees not only with the representatives of the Patriarchate, Formula claimed. "In addition, the files include messages of the SSS employees back in February 2020, demanding that 'American contacts' be taken under control," read the report.

Georgian PM blames opposition

Georgian PM Irakli Gharibashvili said on 16 September that the opposition was behind this "fabrication" and "falsification".

"We understand full well that this hard campaign directed against the church and government, now hitting also diplomats, serves the narrow interest of only one political party," Interpressnews quoted Gharibashvili as saying without specifying the party.

"I am not saying that the opposition taps and distributes [files] but is it not a fact that the opposition is behind this fabrication and falsification?" he was quoted as saying.

Gharibashvili said that the Georgian SSS was operating in compliance with the law regarding tapping. "I cannot say what is legal and what is illegal in this case because the truth and lie have been mixed up. This needs to be sorted out and studied, which requires time. As they know… no expert examination is able to [complete a detailed report] in two weeks, they placed a bet on it and brought it up ahead of the (2 October 2021 local) elections to raise turmoil in the public," Gharibashvili said.

Earlier on 15 September, Gharibashvili alleged that allies of former PM Giorgi Gakharia, who stepped down from the post in 2021 and formed an opposition party, could have been involved in the leaks.