Mikheil Saakashvili: I am not afraid of arrest, I will return to Georgia for the upcoming elections

The third president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, released a special video message and announced that he was going to return to Georgia for the local self-government elections scheduled for October 2.

“I would like to call on all our compatriots abroad who have the opportunity to do this, take a vacation on election day, allocate your time and funds and whoever can – by land, or by air, come to Georgia”, Saakashvili said …

According to him, he is not afraid of arrest, because he is confident that the Georgian people will free him and free themselves. As Saakashvili noted, he will name his route and a specific date later:

“You know that a criminal case has been launched against me. I travel everywhere, including the countries neighboring Georgia, they accept me everywhere, and nowhere does anyone ask questions about these so-called cases brought against me in Georgia”.

According to the former president, he “will do all this completely openly” and that “there really is no alternative to the victory of the opposition in the upcoming elections”.

He also said that there will be no “revenge” against the current ruling party.

At the same time, he said, “Ivanishvili [the informal leader of the ruling party] will return every penny of stolen goods. He will reimburse everything to children, whose mothers and fathers fled abroad, to our peasants who could not sell their products; Investors and people who took loans and could not repay them because the currency fell two or more times. I promise this to the Georgian people”.

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On August 8, the current Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine. The day before the meeting, Garibashvili made a statement about the third president of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili.

“We have a large collection of ties to greet him with and ensure his comfortable stay in prison”, Garibashvili said.

Mikhail Saakashvili is currently a citizen of Ukraine. He was appointed by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as chairman of the executive committee of the National Council for Reforms of Ukraine on May 7, 2020.

The last statement, in which the ex-president announced that he was returning to Georgia, was made by Mikhail Saakashvili on August 27 last year.

The Georgian authorities have put Mikhail Saakashvili on the wanted list. In Georgia, he was convicted in absentia for hiding evidence in the murder of Sandro Girgvliani and for organizing an attack on deputy Valery Gelashvili. Georgian legislation prohibits prisoners and convicts from working in the civil service.

Local self-government elections in Georgia are scheduled for October 2 this year. The opposition hopes that having achieved victory in these elections, it will be able to call for early parliamentary elections.