Saakashivili's lawyer Hrushovets plans to fly to his client again, despite being denied access to Georgia
Ukrainian lawyer of the head of the executive committee of the National Reforms Council of Ukraine, ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, Yevhen Hrushovets, states that he is preparing appeals to international organizations and the court in connection with his groundless non-admission to the territory of Georgia and his intention to fly back to Georgia to meet with his client.
"We have real fears about Saakashvili's life and health, gross violation of his right to defense, in particular, the safety of his lawyers, who will still provide him with legal assistance from Ukraine," the lawyer said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Thursday.
According to Hrushovets, his trip to Georgia was planned in advance, and appropriate appeals were sent to the Foreign Ministry, to the Ukrainian embassy in Georgia. "We have followed all the legal procedures so that I could freely enter the territory of Georgia," the lawyer said.
According to him, Georgian legislation allows providing legal assistance to lawyers who are citizens of other countries. At the same time, he recalled that Saakashvili is a citizen of Ukraine.
According to the lawyer, when leaving for Kyiv, he had to buy a ticket for luggage, as it exceeded the permissible weight. In the luggage, as Hrushovets said, there were working documents among other things.
He said that at the airport in Georgia he was stopped at passport control, the reason for stopping was allegedly questions about the PCR test. "After a while, another officer of the border service said that I needed to leave the territory of Georgia, that I had no right to stay there. It was unexpected for me ... They said that they would inform me about everything later," the lawyer said.
He said that after several hours of staying at the Tbilisi airport, he was "actually forced" to board a plane and fly back to Kyiv, without explaining the reason for the refusal to enter the country. Upon arrival in Kyiv, as the lawyer specified, he never received his luggage. "We have information that my luggage is still on the territory of Georgia," Hrushovets said.
According to him, in this case there are a lot of violations, and "there are also threats to provide high-quality legal assistance to Saakashivili."
"Can I be sure that in this situation with the luggage there will be no provocative actions against me? No, I'm not sure about that. Can I be sure that there was no unauthorized access to the property of the lawyer, the lawyer's secret in the case, which has now received considerable publicity," the lawyer noted.
"When asked if we are planning to try to visit Saakashvili again, I will answer, yes, indeed, we do. We cannot but do this, because this is our direct professional activity," Hrushovets said.
According to him, in this regard, many questions arise for the Georgian side, in particular, why the lawyer is not allowed in, and also "a rhetorical question arises, if we, citizens of Ukraine, can feel safe when today no legal mechanisms give a result." The lawyer said that appropriate appeals to international governmental and non-governmental organizations have been prepared.
"Lawyers in Georgia submit complaints and appeals to the court, respectively, regarding my unreasonable denial of access to the territory of Georgia," he said.
As reported, Saakashvili arrived in Georgia on September 29, and on October 1 he was detained in Tbilisi. He is currently in prison in the city of Rustavi. In Georgia, Saakashvili is involved in several criminal cases. Saakashvili considers his detention illegal, and the charges as falsified.
