Georgia cooperates with Ukraine on ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili’s extradition

Georgian Prosecutor’s Office has re-addressed Ukraine to take extradition measures against Georgia’s ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, Radio Liberty reports.

The Prosecutor’s Office made the statement after Saakashvili announced that he plans to return to the Lviv region of Ukraine via Poland on September 10.

This will be the third time that Georgia requests the extradition of its former president Saakashvili.

Having lost his Ukrainian citizenship a month ago, Saakashvili does not have any citizenship now and it is yet unknown what type of legal document he has used to travel.

Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s third president from 2004-2007 and again from 2008-2013, is accused of:

• violent dispersal of anti-government mass protests on November 7, 2007;
• unlawful raiding of Imedi television company by riot police
• illegal take-over of property owned by late media tycoon Badri (Arkadi) Patarkatsishvili.

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko said while visiting Tbilisi in July that the extradition of Georgia’s third President Mikheil Saakashvili, who faces several charges in Georgia, is dependent on the request from Georgia’s Government.

In 2014 Saakashvili was officially charged in Georgia; however, by the time his case went through court he was already in Ukraine. However, if he returns to Georgia any time in future, he will face a court of law.