UPDATE: 3 demanding ex-president Saakashvili’s release near ex-ruling party chair Ivanishvili’s house detaine
Mikheil Saakashvili, convicted in absentia in 2018 and was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of authority, was detained in Tbilisi a day before the municipal elections. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
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Updated at 20:02
Three individuals demanding Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s release have been detained, protesters report.
Earlier at 18:36
Civil activists supporting Saakashvili have gathered close to the house and business centre of former ruling party chair Bidzina Ivanishvili.
United under the ‘Freedom for Misha’ movement they plan to hold permanent rallies until the ex-president will be eventually released from the detention facility.
It is the matter of personal dignity to protect the third president of the country, this is why we will go everywhere forcing this person’s release”, one of the protesters, Giorgi Mumladze said.
Law enforcers have also gathered to maintain order on the ground.
Saakashvili, who is a citizen of Ukraine and chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, was detained on October 1.
The third president of Georgia was convicted in absentia in 2018 and was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of authority.
He has also been charged with four other offences related to the illegal seizure of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal, and illegal border-crossing.
Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has released a letter from Rustavi Prison No. 12 earlier today and asked emigrants to return to Georgia ‘for a week, by the end of the month’ to take part in a ‘decisive battle.’
A protest rally organized by the opposition United National Movement (UNM) in central Tbilisi demanding the release of ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was detained on October 1 a day before the municipal elections has ended.
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria says that the country’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili is receiving ‘proper attention’ in Rustavi Prison No.12 and that ‘no violations of his rights’ have been reported so far by her representatives in terms of Saakashvili’s living conditions.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says that the country’s recently detained ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili is staging a show with his hunger strike to spark tension ahead of municipal election runoffs on October 30.