Georgia Arrests Ex-President Saakashvili
Addressing the issue, President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili has said that she won’t pardon Mikheil Saakashvili, who faces several criminal charges, the Interfax news agency reported.
Zourabichvili publicly appreciated local law enforcement officials, who have shown high professionalism while arresting Saakashvili.
«Many have been asking me today whether I going to pardon him or not. My answer is simple and clear: no and never,» she said in a statement spread by the president’s office.
As the current president of the country, she wasn’t happy to see the footage of the ex-president’s arrest but the law and justice require us to do so, Zourabichvili noted.
In turn, ex-president of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili, who currently is the chief of the National Reform Council in Ukraine, has gone on a hunger strike, claiming he needs to meet Ukrainian consul, the Georgian ombudsmen Nino Lomdjaria told journalists.
«He told me that he was alone when arrested and offered no resistance. As a result, the arrest was nonviolent as well,» she said right after a meeting with Saakashvili in a jail of the city of Rustavi.
Lomdjaria noted that Saakashvili has no complaints against the police but disagrees with the sentence and considers himself a victim of political oppression.
«He says that he has no problem with health and is going on a hunger strike. Also, as a citizen of Ukraine he demands they let him meet a Ukrainian consul,» the Georgian politician added.
At the end of August 2020, United National Movement, a political party in Georgia suggested Saakashvili’s candidacy as the next prime minister of the country. He agreed and even said publicly that he would hold that position for two years and would return to the country if there were no risk of violence or national confrontation.
The ex-president left Georgia in 2013 to avoid criminal prosecution. However, he was sentenced in absence and then-justice minister Thea Tsulukiani promised to arrest him once he came back to the country.
Mikheil Saakashvili had served as the president of Georgia over the period 2004-2013.
