PM Garibashvili: ex-president Saakashvili will leave Georgia only after serving sentence

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili (R) says that ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili ‘committed crimes and he must serve his prison sentence.

Agenda.ge, 04 Oct 2021 - 12:44, Tbilisi,Georgia

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. 

Saakashvili, who currently chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council as a citizen of Ukraine, was convicted in Georgia in absentia back in 2018 for abuse of authority and has been charged with several other crimes. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced at a briefing yesterday that he will work to bring Saakashvili back to Ukraine using ‘various means’.

Saakashvili has been sentenced to six years in prison. We will accept no requests, from no one in the world, to release him. He will be able to leave the country only after he serves his prison term,” Garibashvili told Imedi TV late yesterday.