Ukrainian President’s allegations on Georgian Gov’t “killing” imprisoned Saakashvili “insulting” - ruling party head

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said claims by the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Russia was “killing” Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s imprisoned former President who holds Ukrainian citizenship, “at the hands of the Georgian Government”, were “insulting”. 

In his comments for the Georgian Public Broadcaster, Kobakhidze added despite the “unfounded and insulting allegations” of Zelenskyy’s social media post on Monday, Tbilisi wished to remain “in even a one-sided friendship mode” with Kyiv in the latter’s war with Russia. 

Zelenskyy’s tweet came following a trial hearing in Tbilisi City Court on Monday over the case of the 2007 violent breakup of an opposition protest in the capital city - during Saakashvili’s time in office - which the former official joined via a video link and accused the Government of damaging his health. 

Posting a screenshot from the trial, Zelenskyy said he had instructed his foreign office to summon the Georgian Ambassador and send him to Georgia “within 48 hours” for consultations over Saakashvili’s extradition, before urging partners to “address this situation and not ignore it and save this man”. 

In his response, Kobakhidze claimed the Government’s opponents had “admitted” involvement of several Ukrainian high-ranking officials in Saakashvili’s clandestine return to Georgia in 2021 to “spark unrest in the country”, adding the “demands by the same Government now to extradite Saakashvili are also insulting”. 

In his previous comments earlier this week, Kobakhidze said the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in May - which rejected the former President’s transfer abroad on health grounds - had “helped Saakashvili to decide that he no longer is dying, after having claimed so for 600 days”, in reference to allegations of his mistreatment in custody.

He stressed the ruling had “put an end” to a “long, anti-state, harmful and fake” allegations by Saakashvili, his domestic and foreign allies on his torture and ill-treatment while in custody, which Kobakhidze claimed the former official had “invented and staged” to facilitate his “illegal  release” from prison. 

Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021, after eight years abroad and on his return ahead of municipal elections in Georgia. At the time he was serving as a Chair of the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council. 

Georgian Dream officials have claimed the former President had been “sent” by unspecified forces to spark unrest in the country, “overthrow the Government” and later “drag Georgia” into the Russia-Ukraine conflict that erupted about five months after his return to the country.