17:58 12.02.2018

Saakashvili expelled to Poland, border guards had to used force

3 min read
Saakashvili expelled to Poland, border guards had to used force

Leader of the Movement of New Forces party, ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili was returned to Poland, the country of his previous stay on Monday. During his detention in Kyiv Ukrainian border guards had to use force, spokesman for the State Border Service of Ukraine Oleh Slobodian has said.

"Regarding the situation with Saakashvili. Today, on February 12, servicemen of the State Border Guard Service together with representatives of the Migration Service and the National Police handed to Saakashvili the relevant authority's resolution on his return to the country of his previous stay. However, during the procedure, law enforcers were attacked by unknown persons from Mikheil Saakashvili's entourage and the border guards were forced to defend themselves," he wrote on Facebook on Monday evening.

Slobodian recalled the situation surrounding Saakashvili's arrival in September 2017 and the subsequent decisions. "On September 22, 2017, the Lviv region's Mostyska Court found Saakashvili guilty of crossing the Ukrainian border illegally. On January 3, 2018, Kyiv's District Administrative Court dismissed Saakashvili's lawsuit against the State Migration Service to recognize him as a refugee. On February 6, the Kyiv's District Administrative Court dismissed Saakashvili's appeal against the Federal Migration Service's decision to refuse issuing documents to recognize him as a refugee or a person in need of additional protection," he said.

Therefore, in accordance with the aforementioned court rulings, "this person stayed in Ukraine illegally, this is why in compliance with all legal formalities he was returned to the country of his arrival, which violated the domestic legislation," Slobodian said.

Meanwhile Saakashvili's lawyer Ruslan Chornolutsky has filed a report in Kyiv's Pechersky district police department, the Movement of New Forces said on its official Facebook account.

"Mikheil Saakashvili's lawyer Ruslan Chornolutsky has just reported the politician's kidnapping. The report was filed following a telephone call to the Pechersky district police department. The police obtained explanations of employees of the restaurant and those, who were with Mikheil at the moment of his kidnapping," it said.

Former Ukrainian deputy prosecutor general, Saakashvili's associate David Sakvarelidze, in turn, said that supporters of the Movement of New Forces were planning to gather near the building of the Ukrainian presidential administration at 6:30 p.m. on Monday. "We are gathering near the PA [presidential administration] at 6:30 p.m. On Bankova [Street]!" he said on his Facebook account.

As reported, in July, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree revoking Saakashvili's Ukrainian citizenship, while the former Georgian president was in the United States.

On September 10, Saakashvili has crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border backed by his supporters, who have de facto forced their way through the border.

On September 22, Mostyska District Court in Lviv region found Saakashvili guilty of illegally crossing Ukraine's state border on September 10.

On January 3, 2018, Kyiv's District Administrative Court dismissed Saakashvili's lawsuit to deem illegal the decision of the Ukrainian Federal Migration Service's Kyiv regional branch to deny him the status of a refugee or a person in need of additional protection after his Ukrainian citizenship had been revoked.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko earlier voiced the options of possible measures against Saakashvili in an interview the TSN television channel, they were extradition at the request of the Georgian Prosecutor General's Office, voluntarily return to any country of his choice, for instance, the Netherlands, where his country lives, as well as "voluntarily or forcible deportation to a country of his choice or the country, from which he had illegally crossed the Ukrainian border, namely Poland."

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