Ex-president Saakashvili ‘hopes int’l community won’t leave his extrajudicial captivity case unnoticed’
Mikheil Saakashvili's supporters all over Georgia are demanding the ex-president's release from the detention. Saakashvili meanwhile remains on hunger strike, his lawyers report. Photo: Mikheil Saakashvili/Facebook
Tweet 
Share
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.
He further says that ‘under the Georgian law any person detained on the basis of an actual and ongoing case shall be promptly brought before court’.
I’ve been held for already 9 days without a hearing and my lawyer was just told by the judge on the case, that no hearing is to be expected for weeks to come”, Mikheil Saakashvili says in the letter.
There is an obvious attempt not to allow my public appearance before scheduled second round of elections where almost in every major city my party is neck to neck with Ivanishvili’s party”, he further says referring to the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Saakashvili, now a citizen of Ukraine who chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, was convicted in 2018 in Georgia in absentia for abuse of authority and charged with four other crimes, including the recent ‘illegally crossing the border’ from Ukraine to Georgia.
The Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) has alleged that Saakashvili has entered Georgia’s Black Sea port city of Poti via Ukrainian private company UkrFerry’s boat Vilnius ‘hidden in a truck’.
Based on the same reports, 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.
#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
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has meanwhile said 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, Garibashvili said, the ‘operation was as poorly planned as Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) had run the country while in power.’
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.
'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 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.
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.’
Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze says that a medical council will be held today to assess the health of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili who is currently serving time in prison. Tikaradze explained that she is not personally involved in the discussion regarding the ex-president’s health, and the medical council is being convened on the request of Saakashvili's personal doctor Nikoloz Kipshidze.