Saakashvili’s supporters in Ukraine free former president from security car

After several hours of conflict with law enforcement, Ukrainian supporters of Georgia’s former President Saakashvili have managed to get him out of the police car which intended to take him into custody.

The conflict emerged when Ukraine’s security forces detained Saakashvili earlier this morning in Kiev for cooperating with criminal groups and concealing crimes committed by these same groups.

Before his arrest, Saakashvili stood on the roof of the building he lived in in Kiev addressing his supporters.

When removed from the roof and placed in the police vehicle, Saakashvili’s supporters did not allow the vehicle to move.

Saakashvili addresses his supporters in Ukraine. Photo bu Vocal Europe. 

In a special briefing Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said that Saakashvili intended to topple the Ukrainian government and that he was being financed by a fled oligarch, affiliated with Ukraine’s previous state leadership, Sergey Kuchenko.

Lutsenko said Saakashvili and his allies received half a million USD from the oligarch.

At the moment of publication, Saakashvili is addressing his supporters and intends to come to the Ukrainian parliament building.

Georgia's President Giorgi Margvelashvili has dedicated a tweet to the tension.

The ongoing processes in #Kiev are the internal affairs of #Ukraine; at the same time, in the center of the events is the former President of Georgia Mikheil #Saakashvili, whose security we hope will be ensured.

— President Of Georgia (@MargvelashviliG) December 5, 2017

Saakashvili faces several charges in Georgia. He is accused of the violent dispersal of anti-government mass protests on November 7, 2007; unlawful raiding of Imedi television company by riot police and the illegal take-over of property owned by late media tycoon Badri (Arkadi) Patarkatsishvili.