A case was opened in Ukraine regarding the kidnapping of Saakashvili
The Chief Military Prosecutor's Office has opened a criminal investigation into a complaint filed by former Georgian President and former head of the Odessa Regional State Administration, Mikheil Saakashvili, regarding violent actions and his illegal transfer across the Ukrainian state border into Poland in 2018, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
This was reported by the Main Military Prosecutor's Office.
“The Main Military Prosecutor's Office received a statement from the former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili. Statement of abduction and violent actions against Saakashvili and his illegal movement across the state border of Ukraine to Poland on February 18, 20018,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on its Facebook page.
“In accordance with this statement, criminal proceedings have been opened,” reports the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office.
As reported, in July 2017, the fifth President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, by decree deprived Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship while he was in the United States.
On September 10, 2017, Saakashvili crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border surrounded by his supporters, which was accompanied by a confrontation with border guards and law enforcement officers. On September 22, 2017, the Mostisky District Court of the Lviv Region found Saakashvili guilty of illegally crossing the Ukrainian border.
On February 12, 2018, Saakashvili was detained in a restaurant in the center of Kyiv, after which he was taken to Boryspil airport and sent by plane to Poland. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine explained that, in accordance with already adopted court decisions, Saakashvili was on the territory of Ukraine illegally, and therefore, with “compliance with all legal formalities, he was returned to the country from which he came, violating domestic legislation.”
On May 28, 2019, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky reversed his predecessor’s decision to deprive Sakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship. Already on May 29, Saakashvili returned to Ukraine.
At the beginning of October 2019, Saakashvili announced that he intended to complain against Poroshenko to the Prosecutor General’s Office due to his expulsion from Ukraine in February 2018.
A case has been opened in Ukraine regarding the kidnapping of Saakashvili.