Trial of Saakashvili is a marker for peace if there's rule of law in Ukraine – Tymoshenko
Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has described the situation with former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili as "farce trial" and "political reprisal."
"With this kind of judicial reprisal on former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, which is currently taking place in the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv, President Petro Poroshenko, disgraces the whole of Ukraine," Tymoshenko told journalists on Monday, December 11, during a break in the court session on choosing a measure of restraint for Saakashvili.
"This is just a farce trial, which is now going on here. This is an absolutely unprincipled thing, it's a trial without motivation, all things in the case are falsified... With such judicial and prosecutorial reprisals, Poroshenko disgraces not himself, but the whole Ukraine," she said.
Speaking in the court, Tymoshenko asked the judge not to apply any preventive measure against Saakashvili.
"We just need to free the person who is being subjected to such a political outrage today," she said.
According to her, the entire world is watching this trial: "This trial is a marker, a litmus test, whether, after two revolutions in Ukraine, there's rule of law, fair courts, and prosecutors who serve the constitution…It is not only the case of Saakashvili that is being heard here. The case of Ukraine is being heard here!" Tymoshenko said.