Prosecutor’s Office charges owner of flat where ex-president Saakashvili was hiding before detention
Mikheil Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine, was detained in Tbilisi on October 1. Photo: IPN.
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Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office has charged the owner of a flat where ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili was hiding before being recently detained.
The Prosecutor's Office says that the owner of the flat, identified only as E.Ts., knew that Saakashvili was wanted by Georgian law enforcement officers for serious crimes. Nevertheless, E.Ts. handed over his apartment to Saakashvili for temporary residence and hiding.
Georgian police officers detained E.Ts on October 1. He may face one to four years in prison if convicted.
Mikheil Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine, was detained in Tbilisi on October 1.
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, and the illegal seizure of the property.
In a letter from the 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 be 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.
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.
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.
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.
Four individuals who helped former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili illegally enter the country have been denied bail earlier today by Tbilisi City Court. Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after returning from eight years in political exile.
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.