Georgia believes Kyiv intends to extradite Saakashvili
The Minister of Justice of Georgia, Teja Tsulukiani, appearing on Imedi, stated that the former President, Mikheil Saakashvili, is politically uninteresting to anyone in his homeland and the issue of his extradition is a legal and investigative-prosecutorial process, Interfax reports.
At the same time, she expressed the hope that Kyiv would begin the process of extraditing Saakashvili as soon as he returns to Ukraine.
“This is a legal and investigative-prosecutorial process. We heard various statements from the Ukraine, but the truth is that Georgia has demanded they return Georgian citizen, Mikheil Saakashvili, to stand trial for four criminal cases, including the beating of MP Valery Gelashvili, the wasting of 9 million lari (more than $ 3.7 million USD) , the November 2007 incident (the peaceful rally crackdown in November 2007), and the Imedi TV,” Tsulukiani said having noted that the Georgians required Kyiv to extradite Saakashvili as early as 2014 and 2015.
In addition, the Minister of Justice of Georgia is certain that once Saakashvili arrives in Ukraine, Kyiv will extradite him to his homeland.
We must understand, that when you are demanding an extradition, the state to which you are applying will either satisfy this requirement or not. The Ukrainians responded in April 2015 that they couldn’t extradite Mikheil Saakashvili, because it had seemed to them that the prosecution was not legal.
“Apparently, they changed their position today. As soon as Saakashvili returns to Ukraine, Kyiv will be able to begin the extradition process,” Tsulukiani noted.
Earlier, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, revoked the Ukrainian citizenship of the former Governor of the Odesa Oblast, Mikheil Saakashvili.