Border guards to be investigated for detaining Saakashvili during moving to Poland in 2018 – PGO
The Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) has sent an indictment to the court against officials of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine on the fact of abuse of power or official powers by a law enforcement officer due to the detention in 2018 of former President of Georgia, former Head of Odesa Regional State Administration Mikhail Saakashvili.
"The pretrial investigation established that the former director of the Department of operational activities and the head of the Special Division for the implementation of special tasks of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine organized and carried out the illegal detention of Mikhail Saakashvili in Kyiv in February 2018. After that he was forcibly transferred by plane to the Republic of Poland in accordance with readmission," the PGO press service said on Thursday morning.
"With regard to other high-ranking officials of government authorities and law enforcement agencies involved in the commission of this criminal offense, the investigation continues," the PGO said.
The pretrial investigation in the criminal proceedings was carried out by investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI).
As reported, in July 2017, fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko deprived Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship by his decree when he was in the United States.
On September 10, 2017, Saakashvili crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border surrounded by his supporters, which was accompanied by a confrontation with border guards and law enforcement officers. On September 22, 2017, the Mostysky District Court of Lviv region found Saakashvili guilty of illegally crossing the Ukrainian border.