Mikheil Saakashvili returned to Georgia: he was immediately arrested

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was arrested immediately upon arrival in the country. For many years he did not appear in his homeland because of the threat to be imprisoned, but the day before he said that he was in Batumi, where he had come to support people during the local elections. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said her office would not seek pardon for the detained former leader of the country. Writes about it with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

Soon after the arrest, Saakashvili's representative Nino Lomjaria announced that he was on a hunger strike and demanded a meeting with the consul of Ukraine. Now Saakashvili has Ukrainian citizenship. She also said that he was detained in Tbilisi.

“As Mikheil Saakashvili stated, he was detained today in Tbilisi, in one of the residential buildings. According to him, he was alone. He was detained by the police. He did not resist, therefore, no force was used during the arrest, nor after,” she said.

How Saakashvili was caught

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced the detention of Saakashvili on Friday evening, October 1.

“Our law enforcement agencies carried out an event at the highest level to detain Mikheil Saakashvili. They had preliminary information about his movements, starting from Ukraine, towards Georgia, and this process was under full control,” Garibashvili said.

“Good morning, Georgia. “Greetings from Georgia eight years later,” Saakashvili wrote on Facebook the day before and also posted a video. “I greet you from Batumi and urge everyone to go to local elections on October 2.”

On the eve of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia announced that the politician did not cross the border of the country.

On the subject: Georgian chess player demands $ 5 million from Netflix: she was offended by the phrase in the TV series 'Queen's move'

“Mikheil Saakashvili is not on Georgian territory, and he did not cross the Georgian border,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Alexander Darakhvelidze. “We have information from the Ukrainian side that Saakashvili did not leave Ukraine.”

At the same time, representatives of the authorities said that they were waiting for Saakashvili to escort him to prison.

Saakashvili on Facebook urged his supporters to vote on October 2, and the next day, Sunday, to march in the direction of Tbilisi to "defend the election results."

The former president said that he intended to join one of these columns. “If the usurper government can detain me before then, this should further increase our strength. In any case, I do not intend to retreat - and I hope you do too,” Saakashvili wrote.

Representative of Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) party, Murman Dumbadze, confirmed that the politician is in Georgia, but did not say exactly how he crossed the border. Saakashvili's Ukrainian office claimed that he had left Kiev and was indeed in Georgia.

One of the leaders of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Givi Mikanadze, in turn, called the video footage distributed by Saakashvili “a fake and another clownade”. Another representative of this political force, Mamuka Mdinaradze, said that Saakashvili is now "in Ukraine, at the resort of Truskavets" and allegedly recorded a video from his room in the Rixos hotel.

Saakashvili recently published a video on social networks in which he announced that he decided to start a family with the deputy of the Ukrainian presidential party "Servant of the People" Yelizaveta Yasko. The appeal was published on the social media accounts of Saakashvili and Yasko.

“We recorded this video before leaving for Georgia. That Georgia and Ukraine are together. We agreed that in case of arrest we would publish this video. Me and Lisa together. Ukraine supports Georgia. Everything will be fine,” Saakashvili wrote in a commentary on the video.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York.

Saakashvili's wife Sandra Roelofs (there was no public information about their official divorce) wrote that her husband showed courage by returning to Georgia.

Criminal cases in Georgia

Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013. Four criminal cases were initiated against him in the country.

The politician lived in Ukraine, where he served for some time as head of the administration of the Odessa region.

Saakashvili received Ukrainian citizenship in May 2015. In July 2017, the then President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, deprived him of his citizenship by his decree. The ex-president was in the United States at the time. The Ukrainian passport was returned to him by the new President Volodymyr Zelensky, after which Saakashvili returned to Ukraine.

On September 27, Saakashvili announced that in the evening of October 2, when the elections to local self-government bodies in Georgia will end, he will arrive in Tbilisi. And he published an air ticket for this date from Kiev to Tbilisi.

“After the polling stations are closed, we all must take to the streets in cities and villages to defend our achieved victory, so I cannot stay away from this process. On the evening of October 2, I will be in Tbilisi,” Saakashvili wrote then.

The Georgian authorities have repeatedly stated that the former president will be arrested if he returns to the country. Similar warnings were sounded this time.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Georgian chess player demands $ 5 million from Netflix: she was offended by the phrase in the TV series 'Queen's move'

Technology is aging too, or how NASA retirees saved the Hubble telescope

Towards the American dream on pointe: how a Ukrainian woman forever changed ballet in the USA and the world

Virtual clothes: Ukrainian women created a successful company selling non-existent outfits

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.