TV channel alleges Saakashvili entered Georgia hidden in truck on ferryboat
Saakashvili was found guilty of the abuse of power in two cases and additionally, he will be charged with illegal border crossing as well. Photo: video grab/archive.
Tweet 
Share
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.
The owner of the flat where Mikheil Saakashvili was detained in Tbilisi some days later, Elguja Tsomaia, was the driver of an agricultural produce truck where the ex-president was allegedly hiding, reports the TV channel.
Saakashvili arrived in Poti in the evening and left for Batumi with his driver late at night where he recorded two videos,” Georgian public broadcaster's reporter Imeda Darsalia stated.
Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani stated that Mikheil Saakashvili may have illegally crossed the Ukrainian border as the Ukrainian side did not confirm the official crossing of the border to the Georgian government.
Saakashvili posted two video addresses on October 1 where he announced his return to the country.
Later that day he was arrested in Tbilisi and transferred to Rustavi prison No. 12.
The police also detained and denied bail to Elguja Tsomaia who ‘handed over his apartment to Saakashvili for temporary residence and hiding,’ Georgian Prosecutor’s office reports.
Father and son Zurab and Shalva Tsotsoria have also been arrested and denied bail as they transported Saakashvili to Georgia’s western region of Samegrelo after he illegally crossed into the country.
The former president claims that currently, he is on a hunger strike considering himself a political prisoner.
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 case of physical attack on opposition MP Valeri Gelashvili who was severely injured and assaulted by armed and masked men in Tbilisi in 2005 and the murder case of Sandro Girgvliani in 2006.
Saakashvili was found guilty of the abuse of power in both cases.
Additionally, ex-president Saakashvili will be charged with illegal border crossing as well.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that the ‘most credible’ account of why ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili returned to Georgia after eight years in political exile was his ‘wish to overthrow the Georgian Dream government.’ However, the ‘operation was as poorly planned as Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) had run the country while in power.’
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
'Content of video was unexpected, form was completely unacceptable'
Former first lady of Georgia Sandra Roelofs wrote on Facebook that the content of the video published by Ukrainian MP Liza Yasko, in which she and ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili announced the creation of a 'new family', was unexpected for her and the form was 'completely unacceptable'.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Kakha Kuchava has stated that ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili cannot be a cause of discord between Georgia and Ukraine and called the two countries ‘brotherly nations and strategic partners.’ "We [Georgia and Ukraine] have many plans in terms of cooperation and [we have] a common enemy,” Kuchava said.
Georgian Patriarch Ilia II has requested the country’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is currently serving a prison term in Rustavi Prison No.12, to suspend hunger strike ‘which is not a Christian way of behaviour.’
Ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained in Tbilisi on October 1, has appealed to the international community, hoping they will not allow his ‘extrajudicial captivity case unnoticed’. In an open letter posted on Facebook, Saakashvili says his arrest was based on two court sentences ‘which no one in the world recognises’ and on an arrest warrant on two pending cases.
The European People’s Party (EPP), which is the largest group in the European Parliament, calls on the Georgian government ‘to improve the political environment’ as well as to guarantee free and fair elections in the second round of the municipal elections and ‘to stop the persecution of political opponents’.
Ruling party MP and Vice Parliament Speaker Gia Volski has responded to the protest rally organised by the largest opposition party, United National Movement (UNM), stating that ‘the number of people gathered at the rally proved nothing to me.’ The UNM and its supporters demanded the release of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who was arrested on October 1, the day before municipal elections in the country took place.
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.
The Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia stated earlier today that former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili will temporarily stay in Gori Military Hospital.
Giorgi Narimanidze, Elguja Tsomaia, Zurab and Shalva Tsotsoria, the four individuals who helped former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili illegally enter the country last September, were released on 5,000 GEL bail by Tbilisi City Court on Thursday.
Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) has rejected censorship allegations of its host Imeda Darsalia, whose weekly analytical programme New Week has not aired since December due to the TV channel’s decision to reorganise it.