While photographing world leaders can be one of the most high profile gigs in photojournalism, being so close to power can also get you burned. As part of a crack-down on suspected spies within the country, the photographer to the President of Georgia has been arrested on suspicion of espionage.

Irakli Gedenidze, personal photographer to President Mikhail Saakashvili, was arrested Thursday along with three others (including his wife) after being accused of spying and “operating under the cover of one of the foreign country’s special service, with various information, against the interests of Georgia,” the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced Thursday.

Also detained was the photographer for Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as Zurab Qurtsikidze, a photographer for the European PressPhoto Agency (EPA).

Georgia officials did not disclose how they were suspected of spying, nor exactly what they did, but sources say the journalists have been accused of giving state secrets to Russia.

“They say he sent pictures to Moscow,” Qurtsikidze’s boss, EPA editor-in-chief Cengiz Serem, told ABC News. “These were pool pictures and were given to all agencies… The pictures are even vetted by the President before they’re sent out.”

Georgia is one of the few former Soviet states to maintain a free news media, so the arrests have prompted widespread protest. Georgia’s Human Rights Center called the move a “violation of the freedom of expression,” while a dozen journalists protested outside the police station in the capital of Tbilisi.