Time in Tbilisi: March 29, 2024 12:21
Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili released a live video allegedly from Georgia’s coastal city of Batumi late yesterday and said that he is already in Georgia ahead of tomorrow’s municipal elections.
In the video Saakashvili has urged the public to vote for the United National Movement (UNM) in the elections and if not the UNM, then some other, smaller, ‘real opposition parties’ and not for the Georgian Dream ruling party (GD) or ex-PM Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party.
He said that he will not appear in public until election day is over and called on Georgians to take to the streets on October 3.
If we get 100,000 people in the center of Tbilisi, we will end the current regime,” Saakashvili said.
The Georgian Interior Ministry says that Saakashvili has not crossed the Georgian border.
It still remains unclear how the ex-president, who faces a number of criminal charges in Georgia, managed to cross into the country from Ukraine.
In earlier statements Saakashvili pledged that he would return to Georgia on the evening of the election day.
The Georgian government said that he would be arrested if he really returned, while MEPs have urged Saakashvili to refrain from returning to Georgia not to spark tension and destabilisation.
MEP Viola Von Cramon has stated that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s return to the country for the October 2 municipal elections ‘will not serve the interests of Georgia,’ noting that it will deepen the crisis and create unnecessary tension. Saakashvili pledged earlier in September that he will return to Georgia for the local elections and published a photo of a reserved ticket from Ukraine to Georgia yesterday.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party says that ‘there are no expectations’ that President Salome Zurabishvili may pardon ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili who pledges to return to Georgia from Ukraine on the evening of the October 2 municipal election day.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that if Georgia’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili will return for the October 2 municipal elections in Georgia, he will be arrested. Saakashvili has posted a photo of a reserved ticket from Ukraine to Georgia for the evening of the day of municipal elections in Georgia.
Former president of Georgian Mikheil Saakashvili, who currently chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, has posted a photo of a reserved ticket from Ukraine to Georgia for the evening of the day of municipal elections in Georgia on October 2. Saakashvili, now a citizen of Ukraine, has called on voters to support the opposition and after the closure of polling stations took to the street ‘to defend votes.’
Head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Irakli Kobakhidze says that Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s recently released video allegedly from the Georgian city of Batumi is a fake and that Saakashvili is a ‘clown.’ “I can say for sure that the video is fake. Saakashvili is not in Georgia,” Kobakhidze said. The Georgian Interior Ministry also claims that Saakashvili has not crossed the Georgian border.
The United National Movement (UNM) opposition party held a media briefing earlier today in which they said that the Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili has ‘really returned’ ahead of tomorrow’s municipal elections. UNM representative Eka Kherkheulidze said that she doesn't know how Saakashvili managed to return. However, she added that the ‘country’s intelligence service is even unable to prevent the entry of Russian spies.’
US Senator Jeanne Shaheen has stated that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s return to the country is unlikely ‘to be useful’ and won’t ‘help ease the situation’ in Georgia. In an interview with the Georgian bureau of Voice of America (VOA), she also noted that after the parliamentary elections in 2012 when the United National Movement (UNM) lost the race and the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party came to power, Saakashvili who was Georgia’s president under the UNM-led government ‘discredited himself.’
The Georgian Interior Ministry says that Saakashvili has not crossed the Georgian border and that Ukraine has also confirmed that the Georgian ex-president has not left the country. The ministry says that if Saakashvili crosses into Georgia, he will be arrestedSaakashvili, who currently chairs the executive committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council as a citizen of Ukraine, released a live video allegedly from the Georgian coastal city of Batumi late last night and said that he is already in Georgia ahead of tomorrow’s municipal elections.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) MP Mamuka Mdinaradze says that the country’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili is in the Ukrainian resort town of Truskavets and not in Batumi, Georgia as Saakashvili claims.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili is unhappy with both the government and the opposition’s reactions to Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s recently released video in which he claims he is in Georgia ahead of tomorrow’s municipal elections.
Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been detained today, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced. "Our law enforcement agencies had prior information about his (Saakashvili’s) movement from Ukraine to Georgia and the process was under the control” Garibashvili stated.
Overall six criminal charges are filed against recently arrested Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili who has been convicted to six years of imprisonment in two cases while four other criminal cases are still being heard in Tbilisi City Court.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry has denied the alleged summoning of the Georgian Ambassador to Ukraine Teimuraz Sharashenidze to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry over the recent arrest of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. The ministry has stated that the diplomat of the Georgian embassy will hold a meeting with Ukrainian authorities regarding the case.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has stated that she will never pardon former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili who has been arrested on October 1 in Tbilisi. She noted that the rule of law requires detention of Saakashvili saying that ‘before the law all are equal.’
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has visited the recently detained ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili in the prison of Rustavi and has announced that Saakashvili considers himself a political prisoner and starts a hunger strike. Lomjaria also stated that as a citizen of Ukraine Saakashvili requests a meeting with the Ukrainian consul.
Former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and Ukrainian MP from the ruling Servant of the People party Liza Yasko have announced their relationship on Facebook earlier this evening. Yasko, 31, posted a video on her Facebook page with Saakashvili in which the ex-president of Georgia, who was detained by Georgian law enforcement just several hours ago, said that he had created a new family with Yasko.
Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office has charged father and son who transported ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili to Georgia’s western region of Samegrelo after he illegally crossed into Georgia several days ago.
Tbilisi City Court has denied bail to Zurab and Shalva Tsotsoria, who are currently detained for transporting ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili to Georgia’s western region of Samegrelo after he illegally crossed into Georgia several days ago.
Opposition United National Movement (UNM) MP Levan Khabeishvili has announced a ‘large-scale’ demonstration to release recently detained Georgian former president Mikheil Saakashvili and called on the public to join. "We must start preparing for a large rally, the whole of Georgia must stand on its feet...Let's start organising from here and interacting with each other,” says Khabeishvili in his Facebook post.
Georgian former President Mikheil Saakashvili allegedly entered Georgia’s Black Sea port city of Poti via Ukrainian private company UkrFerry’s boat Vilnius ‘hidden in a truck,’ the Georgian Public Broadcaster’s (GPB) weekly analytical program New Week reports. The GPB says Saakashvili set foot in Georgia on September 29 at nine p.m. via boat which departed from the trading port of Chernomorsk in the Odessa region.
Police have arrested one more individual in connection with the illegal crossing of the national border by former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.