Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Georgian police said they have detained a suspect who is on the wanted list for plotting to overthrow the government in 2008.

Valery Ghelbakhiani, a member of parliament and head of Badri Patarkatsishvili’s presidential campaign, was charged with plotting a coup and a “terrorist attack” on a government official, the police said in a statement their website. He attempted to cross the Armenian-Georgian border when he was apprehended, according to the statement.

Christian Democrat leader Giorgi Targamadze condemned the arrest and said at a news conference in Tbilisi today that Ghelbakhiani was returning to Georgia to visit his ill mother in the hospital.

--Editors: Alan Crosby, Jennifer Freedman

To contact the reporter on this story: Helena Bedwell in Tbilisi at hbedwell@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net