Abducted from West Germany by the Soviet security agents, he was allowed to reside, under police supervision, in his native Georgia where he practiced law and died in Tbilisi.

Maglakelidze received his early education in a Georgian gymnasium in Kutaisi, then part of the Russian Empire, and obtained a PhD in law from the Berlin University.

By late 1943, Maglakelidze's relations with the German leadership had soured due largely to his protest against the deployment of Georgian battalions against the resistance movements across Europe.

In October 1943, Maglakelidzé was forced to resign as a commander of the Georgian Legion; he was transferred, under a false pretext, to the German units in the Baltics.

These uneasy relations were probably behind the false rumors about Maglakelidze's ties with the Soviet security services, further fueled by the general's subsequent fate.

The Maglakelidze case was widely exploited by the Soviet propaganda as an example of the state's lenient treatment of a "re-defector" and in an effort to discredit the Caucasian political emigration.

The official Soviet press carried the detailed "confession" of Maglakelidze in which he denounced the Caucasian émigré leaders as the United States and British intelligence agents and expressed his "sincere repentance for the crimes he had committed against the motherland".