Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s ex-president and one-time regional governor in Odessa, Ukraine, had to be seen in pre-detention cell or house arrest now but he is holding a rally at Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine demanding impeachment of President Petro Poroshenko.
Saakashvili was detained in Kiev earlier today. Ukraine’s General Prosecutor’s Office and Security Service have been searching his apartment since morning. Meanwhile, Saakashvili got himself fortified on the roof and was addressing his supporters. He fled to a rooftop after elite security forces stormed his apartment.
The crowd of supporters kept the road blocked after Saakashvili was detained not to allow the car to leave the territory. They managed to liberate Saakashvili from the vehicle of Special Squad. Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office already opened the criminal case on fact of ex-governor’s liberation.
Tuesday’s chaotic developments mark the most recent spasm in a bitter falling out between Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko and the exiled former Georgian leader who has reinvented himself as a Ukrainian opposition figure, Financial Times reported.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko said during a special briefing that Sergey Kurchenko, a fugitive Ukrainian oligarch gave Mikheil Saakashvili and his supporters USD 500 thousand to finance protest rallies in purpose to overthrow the Ukrainian government. Saakashvili is charged for assisting a criminal group in organizing a coup-de-tat.
Saakashvili is charged for 4 criminal cases in Georgia and faces up to 9 years in prison if found guilty. However, it is not yet known if former president will be extradited to Georgia or tried in Ukraine.
Eka Beselia, Chairwoman of the Georgian Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee said that all procedures would be carried out within the framework of bilateral legal cooperation between Georgia and Ukraine. Beselia said that the request on extradition of Saakashvili had been sent before and both Justice Minister and Chief Prosecutor’s Office had made corresponding statements.
Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze told First Channel that if Saakashvili was extradited to Georgia, corresponding services would act in compliance with the law because supremacy of law was what mattered most.
The United National Movement (UNM) Party declared that it moves to an emergency regime and plans to hold a protest rally in front of Rustaveli Subway Station on December 6. Nika Melia, one of the leaders of National Movement, made this statement when commenting on the developments around Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
The EU delegation to Ukraine called on the Ukrainian government not to violate former ex-governor’s fundamental rights expressing their hope that the investigation into Mikheil Saakashvili’s case is in compliance with the legislation of Ukraine.
Mikheil Saakashvili, former Georgian president is no longer citizen of Georgia and was left stateless after being stripped of his Ukrainian passport in July, 2017. In September President Poroshenko accused his former acquaintance from university days in Kiev of committing a “crime.”
