Interior Ministry believes Saakashvili's stay in Ukrainian territory is illegal
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine believes that the leader of the New Forces Movement political party, ex-head of Odesa Regional State Administration Mikheil Saakashvili, who crossed the border of Ukraine on September 10, is currently staying illegally on the territory of Ukraine, but there are not sufficient grounds for his detention.
Director of the Liaison Department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine Artem Shevchenko at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday, answering the question whether Saakashvili is really staying in the territory of Ukraine illegally, said: "Yes."
He also said that at the moment the State Border Guard Service handed an administrative protocol on committing an administrative offense, however, they did not have sufficient grounds for the detention of Saakashvili.
"As a procedural act, detention implies certain procedural nuances. We have bulletins about those individuals who we could and deem necessary to detain. If some other bulletins about other people are found, which would allow us to legally commit the procedural act - detention - it will be done [...] The State Border Guard Service said that it wasn't planning to detain and didn't have grounds to detain [Saakashvili]. He was served a protocol on committing an administrative offence, as were another 14 individuals," Shevchenko said.
Shevchenko said he hopes that all those people demonstrate obedience to the law and respond to the legal demands of the investigation, including the demand to appear for questioning.
He also expressed the view that Saakashvili wished to cooperate with the investigation.
However, there are no suspects in the case of the illegal crossing of the state border at the Shehyni checkpoint on September 10, he added.
"We have no procedural suspects so far. No one has been notified of a suspicion yet," Shevchenko said.
Shevchenko recalled that law enforcers had detained five individuals in connection with the case.
"Five individuals have been detained. Each of them was caught using physical violence against servicemen, the border guards. Each of them [did it] in their own way and to a various degrees," Shevchenko said.
