“No consultations possible” with Kyiv over transfer of ex-Pres. Saakashvili - ruling party head

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Wednesday said “no consultations” were possible with Kyiv over transfer of the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili, and added the Ukrainian Government’s move earlier this week to send the Georgian Ambassador back to Tbilisi for discussions on the matter were “regrettable and insulting”. 

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Pointing to Ambassador Giorgi Zakarashvili’s decision not to leave Kyiv during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 - “unlike many other diplomats from Ukraine’s strategic allies” - Kobakhidze said his summoning on Tuesday at Ukraine’s foreign office, for the diplomat to be sent back to Tbilisi for the talks was “unfortunate”. 

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However, beyond that, we are not going to respond with comments either. We prefer to remain in a one-sided friendship mode with the Ukrainian authorities”, the party official said in his press comments. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday accused Tbilisi of “killing” Saakashvili, a citizen of Ukraine, “on the instructions” of Moscow and announced the sending of the Georgian Ambassador back to Tbilisi for consultations over his transfer. 

The move 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 after lifting his shirt to show protruding ribs.

Responding to Kyiv’s move, the Georgian foreign office on Tuesday expressed its “deep concern” and stressed the actions of the Ukrainian Government represented an “extreme form of escalation of diplomatic relations against a friendly state and people”.

The body said it was “unfortunate” Kyiv was focusing on Saakashvili’s “deteriorated health” following the May ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that rejected the former official’s transfer abroad on health grounds. The Ministry said the decision had “put an end to a fake campaign” on his ill-treatment in custody. 

Rati Bregadze, the Justice Minister, reiterated later on Tuesday the former President had been engaged in “self-harm” since his arrest in Tbilisi in October 2021, and refused to follow the doctors’ instructions in a bid to “escape justice”. 

Saakashvili, who is currently serving a six-year term for abuse of power while in office in two separate cases, was arrested after eight years abroad 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 Georgia.