Saakashvili Detention: Refusal of Extradition to Ukraine and Prime Minister's Statement on Alleged Assassination Plot Against Opposition Leaders

A lawyer and the Ukrainian consul were allowed to meet Saakashvili.

Detained former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has refused extradition to Ukraine, while Georgia's prime minister said that Saakashvili had attempted to kill opposition figures.

We explain what is currently known about Saakashvili's detention.

Statement by Georgian authorities

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that Saakashvili was preparing provocations and even allegedly “the liquidation of several opposition leaders.”

Irakli Garibashvili
Prime Minister of Georgia

We have very good, brotherly relations with Ukraine today. Saakashvili, especially in prison, will not become a cause of deterioration in our interstate relations. It is a pity that this man was our president for nine years. If he wants to return to Ukraine, he can do so six years after serving his prison sentence under the verdict of the Georgian court.

According to Garibashvili, “Saakashvili, realizing his deplorable condition in a Georgian prison, today remembered his Ukrainian citizenship and demands his return to Ukraine.”

He believes that the arrest of Saakashvili allegedly prevented a very large provocation.

Irakli Garibashvili
Prime Minister of Georgia

Saakashvili planned to gather 10,000 of his supporters in Tbilisi on October 3 to protest allegedly falsified local elections by the authorities, and at that time to unexpectedly appear in the crowd. After police would have had to detain him, according to one version, the liquidation of several opposition leaders was planned in order to place responsibility for this on the current government, with all the consequences for Georgia. This sick man believed, and we too convinced him, that the situation in Georgia is out of control, and that he could carry out what he had planned.

Meanwhile, Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Teya Tsulukiani consistently stated that the idea of extraditing Saakashvili to Ukraine is “nonsense.”

Teya Tsulukiani
Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia

Talking about extraditing Saakashvili is legal nonsense or absurdity. If we are talking about transferring Saakashvili to Ukraine so that he serves the prison term the Georgian court imposed on him in Ukraine, then we have no desire to do that. There is no point in it. Sentences handed down by our sovereign state will be enforced on Georgian soil, that is, in Georgian prisons.

Saakashvili's statement

Saakashvili, for his part, told his lawyer that he will most likely refuse extradition to Ukraine and that he is continuing his hunger strike.

Giorgi Chiviashvili
Saakashvili's lawyer

He is in good spirits. He continues the hunger strike and believes that this form expresses the continuation of the struggle. His position is that the struggle must continue. As for the extradition issue, Mikheil Saakashvili's position on this matter is that he came to Georgia, his homeland, and plans political struggle. He will probably refuse extradition.

The lawyers also read out a letter from Mikheil Saakashvili, in which he addresses members of his party, the United National Movement. The former president emphasizes that he is satisfied with the results of the municipal elections and calls on his like-minded people to continue the struggle.

“We have excellent results from this latest referendum. In local elections this government has always lost very easily. When they thought people were finally broken, a second round of voting is held in every major city, and in some of these cities the United National Movement is ahead of them. This means only one thing: we will not relax, we will fight even harder. The days of the Georgian Dream government are numbered. I am proud of you,” Saakashvili writes in the letter.

Visit of Ukrainian ambassador to Saakashvili

As Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko reported, a Ukrainian consul visited Saakashvili today, October 4.

Oleg Nikolenko
Foreign Ministry spokesperson of Ukraine

A Ukrainian consul today visited Ukrainian citizen Saakashvili at a penitentiary facility in the city of Rustavi in Georgia. Saakashvili's condition is satisfactory; he has not complained about the conditions of detention.

According to Nikolenko, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the embassy in Tbilisi are providing Saakashvili with consular and legal assistance as a Ukrainian citizen. The consul is also in contact with his lawyers.