The capture and rescue of Mikhail Saakashvili: the crowd did not let him arrest

Saakashvili himself climbed onto the roof. But he was taken from there and detained.

According to the SBU, he is charged with a violation for “Assisting members of criminal organizations and concealing their criminal activities.” An audio recording appeared on the Internet, which Saakashvili later called a fake.

The car, in which Saakashvili tried to take out, was blocked on Trekhsvyatitelskaya Street. The activists blocked her departure for a long time, threw foreign objects at her and shook her. The police used tear gas. The protesters poured water on the police, punched the wheels and did not let the car with Saakashvili and other cars move. The activists broke the windows and pulled the politician out of the car through the rear doors.

As a result, supporters of the politician were able to snatch him out of the car, and the first barricade of pavement appeared in the city.

Photo: Facebook / Aliona Yahno

Photo: Facebook / Aliona Yahno

Photo: Facebook / Aliona Yahno

After his release, Mikhail Saakashvili went to the office of his party, and then, along with a crowd of supporters, moved to the building of the Verkhovna Rada. Meanwhile, the first reaction appeared on the website of the US Embassy in Ukraine.

“We know that Saakashvili was detained, and protests continue in the center of Kyiv. We call on the parties to defuse tensions and avoid violence. We are closely monitoring the situation and expect that a prompt investigation will be carried out in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine."

“An organized crime group has seized power in Ukraine,” he said from a stage outside the Rada.

Mr. Saakashvili said about the accusations of the Prosecutor General’s Office in his address:

“They accuse me of having connections with people who settled in Russia. But there is no greater enemy of Putin in the post-Soviet space than me.”

He called on citizens to gather for a “peaceful rally” and “force parliament to remove the criminals from power.”

At 4, the evening hours under the Verkhovna Rada totaled about one and a half thousand activists. By the evening, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine put Saakashvili on the wanted list:

“The Prosecutor General’s Office prepared and handed over to the head of the National Police of Ukraine, Sergei Knyazev, a resolution to put Mikheil Saakashvili on the wanted list, who escaped from custody while being transported for questioning to the SBU,” said the press secretary of the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office.

The Prosecutor General said that within 24 hours law enforcement officers will do everything possible to detain Saakashvili. He also said that a number of people’s deputies would be interrogated in connection with the “liberation” of Saakashvili, and the Prosecutor General called on the leader of the New Forces Movement party to come to the investigator on Wednesday, December 6, at 9:00.

In turn, Saakavshili’s lawyer Pavel Bogomazov told Hromadske journalists that the investigators did not read out the suspicion to the end during the arrest in the morning and did not hand over a single document. He also assured that Saakashvili does not plan to hide from the investigation.

Recall, in July 2017, President of Ukraine Peter Poroshenko Saakashvili deprived of Ukrainian citizenship.

In response, the former head of the Odessa region stated that he would challenge this decision in court, as well as that "will not stop the fight for Ukraine."

Despite being deprived of his citizenship, Saakashvili arrived in Poland with a Ukrainian passport and announced his intention to cross the border of Ukraine on September 10.

Polish border guards allowed Saakashvili to enter Ukraine, but Saakashvili’s bus was stuck in the “neutral zone”: the Ukrainian side closed the border, and border guards said that “according to information of the operational duty officer of the SSU in Lviv region, the Shegini crossing was mined.

Thereafter Saakashvili supporters broke into Ukraine by storm.