UNM MP announces ‘large-scale’ demonstration for release of arrested ex-president Saakashvili
The UNM and their supporters held a protest rally in front of the Rustavi No.12 prison yesterday in support of ex-president Saakashvili where he is currently held. Photo: RFE/RL.
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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.
In his Facebook post, Khabeishvili urges people to provide him with contact information before the announcement of the exact date of the rally for a ‘full mobilisation.’
Khabeishvili told the local online media outlet Netgazeti.ge that the main demand of the protesters will be the release of Saakashvili and the appointment of snap parliamentary elections.
He also underscored that the rally will be announced by the UNM.
The UNM and their supporters held a protest rally in front of the Rustavi No.12 prison yesterday in support of ex-president Saakashvili where he is currently held.
Saakashvili occasionally sends letters from prison where he thanks his supporters and urges them to fight for the opposition’s victory in election run-offs which is scheduled for October 30.
The second round of the local municipal elections will be held in 20 constituencies of the country nationwide and in Georgia’s five large cities where citizens will elect the mayors.
Saakashvili who announced his return to the country on October 1 via Facebook was detained later that day in Tbilisi and transferred to the penitentiary institution in Rustavi.
Mikheil Saakashvili who served as the country’s third president from 2004 to 2013 faces several criminal charges and is convicted to six years of imprisonment in two cases.
The former president claims that currently, he is on a hunger strike considering himself a political prisoner.
The United National Movement (UNM) opposition party and their supporters are now rallying at Rustavi No.12 prison to express support for the currently detained third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani has stated earlier today that former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ‘possibly’ violated the Ukrainian legislature by crossing its border illegally. Zalkaliani noted that before Saakashvili became a Ukrainian citizen ‘he was the president and a citizen of Georgia and has been charged in accordance with Georgian legislation.’
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 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.
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.
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.
Police have arrested several supporters of recently detained former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in front of Rustavi prison earlier today as a result of a clash between protesters and law enforcers. The largest opposition United National Movement (UNM) party supporter Zviad Kuprava has been arrested along with several other protesters who aimed to make inscriptions 'Freedom to Misha' on the walls of the prison.