The Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine has scheduled the hearing of a lawsuit by the leader of the Movement of New Forces and former Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, against President Petro Poroshenko, in which he demands that the decree depriving him of Ukrainian citizenship be found unlawful and annulled, for December 21.

"The hearing of the lawsuit has been scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on December 21," the court's press service told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

Poroshenko signed a decree depriving Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship in July. On September 10, Saakashvili crossed into Ukraine from Poland accompanied by his supporters, who effectively broke through the border. Saakashvili said on October 25 that he had obtained documents on his deprivation of citizenship from the Ukrainian presidential office and was determined to appeal them.

On November 3, the Higher Administrative Court opened proceedings on Saakashvili's lawsuit against Poroshenko, in which the former asked the court to annul the presidential decree on terminating his Ukrainian citizenship. The hearing was set for November 22.

Saakashvili's lawyer Ruslan Chornolutsky said on November 20 that the system of appointment of judges was tampered with while the court was appointing a panel to hear his client's lawsuit. The Higher Administrative Court denied the allegation, insisting that "there was no and cannot be any tampering with the automated system of the distribution of judicial cases in the Higher Administrative Court."

It was reported on November 21 that the Higher Administrative Court had canceled the hearing scheduled for November 22, as the judge to whom the case was originally assigned had been transferred to another job.