President Zurabishvili states she will never pardon ex-president Saakashvili
President Zurabishvili thanked the law enforcement agencies for conducting the operation ‘at a highly professional level and peacefully.’ Photo: Administration of President of Georgia.
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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.’
He (Mikheil Saakashvili) made an unacceptable decision for the president of the country - when he renounced his citizenship...Most importantly when he apparently entered the country to sow destabilisation,” Zurabishvili said.
President Zurabishvili also stated that one of the reasons why she will never pardon Saakashvili is Irina Enukidze the mother of Sandro Girgvliani who was murdered in 2006. The former president Saakashvili was found guilty of the abuse of power in the case and sentenced to three years in prison in absentia.
Henceforth the law will govern and a new state-building process of Georgia will start. Not revenge, but rather, depolarisation,” stated Zurabishvili.
She thanked the law enforcement agencies for conducting the operation ‘at a highly professional level and peacefully.’
Head of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party Nika Melia said several days ago that the ruling party ‘allows the possibility’ Zurabishvili may pardon Saakashvili and therefore ‘the GD no longer trusts her.’
Saakashvili who faces several criminal charges has been arrested and transferred to the jail in Rustavi.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
The Georgian Interior Ministry says the detention of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is charged with several criminal offences, was planned in advance. Based on the information released by the ministry earlier today, Georgian law enforcers, the State Security Service and the General Prosecutor’s Office carried out a joint operation to detain ex-president Saakashvili.
“The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine will support ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, since he is a citizen of Ukraine”, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Saakashvili returned to Georgia in the past few days, though the exact date of his arrival in the country remains unclear; his United National Movement party claims that he had arrived in late September.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained in Tbilisi on October 1, will be able to leave the country only after he serves his prison sentence.
Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1, has called for a ‘high-level of mobilisation and a more powerful attack’ for the mayoral election runoffs in 20 of 64 election constituencies on October 30.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has reiterated her previous claims that she will not pardon arrested ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili. She said Saakashvili, who was arrested a day before the October 2 municipal elections in Tbilisi ‘does not satisfy any criteria of a political prisoner or of a victim of innocence’.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has claimed she had “never explicitly refused” to pardon Mikheil Saakashvili, the imprisoned former President of the country, telling Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Georgian service this week she “refrain[ed] from commenting on pardons unless I [openly] state my intention to pardon someone”.