General Prosecutor of Ukraine: No obstacles for Saakashvili's deportation
The State Migration Service of Ukraine has denied former President of Georgia and former Governor of the Odessa Region, Mikhail Saakashvili refugee status, which makes it possible to deport him from the country. According to Gromadsky, the
Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko had the following to say about this:
“The State Migration Service has denied him refugee status for which he had written a statement, and Mr. Saakashvili, as usual, did not appeal to the court,” Lutsenko said. Therefore, according to him, ‘there are no special circumstances that could prevent Saakashvili’s deportation or extradition.”
Lutsenko also accused Saakashvili of attempting a coup d’état. According to him, when Saakashvili was Governor of Odessa, he forced his subordinates to issue Ukrainian residence permits to 20 citizens of Georgia.
“Now, they are planning a coup – this will not work … Saakashvili has challenged the State, and law enforcement officers will give him an answer,” said Lutsenko.
Since 17 October, supporters of Saakashvili have held demonstrations in front of Verkhovna Rada, demanding reforms.
On 26 July 2017, Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine, issued a decree revoking Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship, due to the fact that Saakashvili provided false information during his application procedure. In particular, he refrained from mentioning that an investigation was being conducted against him in Georgia.
Saakashvili was in The United States when he was deprived of citizenship. The former President of Georgia accused Poroshenko of political persecution. Saakashvili only had Ukrainian citizenship, and after Poroshenko’s decision, he became a stateless person.
Ukrainian authorities announced the cancellation of his passport, but this did not prevent Saakashvili from flying to Poland from the US, and then traveling around Europe.
On 10 September, Saakashvili, after several unsuccessful attempts, managed to cross the Polish-Ukrainian border where a crowd of his supporters literally ‘carried’ him to the Ukrainian side, breaking through a cordon of law enforcement. The former Georgian president and his supporters say that the authorities themselves broke the law when they refused him entry thereby preventing him from appealing against the revoking of his citizenship in court.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine stated that eleven police officers and five border guards were injured during Saakashvili’s border crossing. It became known later that police had detained five people because of clashes at the border.
On 24 September 2017 the court issued Saakashvili a fine of USD 130 for illegally crossing the border.
At the beginning of September, Ukraine received a request from the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office to search for, take into custody, and extradite Mikheil Saakashvili against whom several criminal cases are being investigated in his homeland.
