TBILISI - Some 29 Georgians were arrested Wednesday in a series of raids around the country on suspicion of preparing a coup against the government of the ex-Soviet republic, the interior ministry said.
The detainees were all supporters of fugitive opposition leader Igor Giorgadze, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili told journalists.
"They will be charged under article 315 of the Georgian criminal code -- plotting against the state and overthrowing the government," Merabishvili said, without giving details of the alleged plot.
Merabishvili's comments were the first official confirmation of the operation.
Earlier, state-owned and private television channels showed security forces members wearing black masks and armed with Kalashnikovs leading several of the opposition figures into waiting cars.
Giorgadze is on Interpol's wanted list on charges of attempting the assassination of then president Eduard Shevardnadze in 1995.
He is also accused of preparing a coup against the US-backed government in Georgia, an impoverished, but strategic country of fewer than five million people.
09/06/2006 14:39 GMT