Interior ministry releases new details about ex-president Saakashvili’s detention
Investigation into Mikheil Saakashvili’s illegal crossing of the state border is currently underway.
Tweet 
Share
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 operation has been carried out secretly to avoid public confrontation and the possible escalations”, the ministry representative Mamuka Tchelidze said at today’s news briefing.
He said Saakashvili was detained at an apartment in the district of Gldani-Nadzaladevi in Tbilisi ‘in precise and efficient time’. The owner of the apartment where Saakashvili was staying has been also detained for covering the crime.
#Georgia #Tbilisi: The first footage of #Saakashvili's arrest, published by Ministry of Internal Affairs of #Georgia pic.twitter.com/bK2fOyD87x
— agenda.ge (@agenda_ge) October 1, 2021
Investigation into Saakashvili’s illegal crossing of the state border is currently underway.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has meanwhile noted that the Georgian law enforcers have opened the door of the apartment where the wanted ex-president was hiding with keys, which ‘says a lot’.
The situation was under the control. We knew much more than they could have imagined. Overall, we did everything to ensure the peaceful ending, chose the moment when Saakashvili was home alone”, Garibashvili told the journalists after casting his ballot in Tbilisi earlier today.
He also thanked his Ukrainian counterpart for ‘fruitful cooperation’ in detention of Saakashvili, who holds Ukrainian citizenship.
Mikheil Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s president in 2003-2013, is charged with several criminal offences including the violent dispersal of anti-government mass protests on November 7, 2007, raiding of TV channel Imedi by riot police, illegal take-over of the property and other crimes.
In a letter from a Rustavi detention facility ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili said all criminal accusations against him are false. Saakashvili also said that when he ‘left everything in Kyiv’ and arrived in Georgia he was aware that ‘most probably’ he would have been detained.
The ruling Georgian Dream party head Irakli Kobakhidze says that former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili served Russian interests in Georgia for nine years when he was in power and 'now he is where he belongs.’ "He handed over 20% of our country's territories to the Russian Federation. He came to Georgia to continue working with Russia", Kobakhidze said.
In a letter from a Rustavi detention facility ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili says all criminal accusations against him are false. Addressing the Georgian population, Saakashvili says when he ‘left everything in Kyiv’ and arrived in Georgia he was aware that ‘most probably’ he would have been detained.
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.’
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.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced at a briefing in Truskavets, Ukraine today that he will work to bring Ukrainian citizen and former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, currently detained in Georgia, back to Ukraine using "various means".
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.
Former deputy interior minister under the United National Movement government Giorgi Lortkipanidze has been charged for helping former president Mikheil Saakashvili cross the border from Ukraine to Georgia illegally at the end of September of this year. The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office says that Lortkipanidze was aware of Saakashvili’s plans to return to Georgia ahead of October 2 municipal elections, and he offered suggestions about how this could be done.