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February 16, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 4
Saakashvili deported from Ukraine
a lowlife crook, who wants to wreck Ukraine. All this shows how weak they are. We will of necessity defeat them.”
Unidentified supporters of Saakashvili attacked the arresting officials, who were forced "to defend themselves and use force", according to a State Border Service spokesman. However, later the authorities said in a statement that Saakashvili had left the country “in compliance with all legal procedures” and is now in Poland.
State Border Service spokesman Oleh Slobodyan confirmed on his Facebook page that Saakashvili was arrested by the agency’s officers, the State Migration Service, and regular police officers.
Saakashvili's lawyer Ruslan Chornolutsky said the deportation was "a kidnapping and not a detention", Reuters reports. He said this was because any detention should be "based on either [a] court decision or some other proceeding documents". This "was not the case", he said.
Under Ukrainian law forced deportation or extra- dition is only possible if there is a specific court warrant. Even then the ruling can be appealed within 30 days, and extradition or deportation can only happen after the appeals court has made
its ruling. It seems that this procedural step has been skipped and Saakashvili was put on a plane on the same day as his arrest. Moreover, his law- yers have also filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against the decision to deny the politician refugee status. Finally, his lawyers are challeng- ing Poroshenko’s decision to cancel Saakashvili’s citizenship – a presidential prerogative.
Saakashvili served as president of his native Georgia in 2004-2013 and was invited to Ukraine by Poroshenko after the latter took office in 2014. Saakashvili was appointed the regional
governorship of Odesa from 2015-2016 before falling out with Poroshenko and joining the opposition. Once close allies, the two men have become bitter rivals.
Now head of the Movement of New Forces party, the stateless Saakashvili arrived in Poland from where he entered Ukraine without documents in September.
After his return to Ukraine, Saakashvili organised a series of rallies calling for Poroshenko’s impeachment and generally tried to whip up sentiment against the government, accusing it of corruption and of failing to live up to the promises made during the Maidan popular uprising in 2014 that ousted former president Viktor Yanukovych.
Saakashvili has been a thorn in the side of Poroshenko, who tried to arrest him several times with farcical results. He was bundled into a police van outside his apartment in December only to
be rescued by a mob of supporters who ripped the doors open and pulled him to safety. After the third effort to detain him, he was swiftly released again when thousands demonstrated for his release.
However, other than a small hard-core group, Saakashvili enjoys little public support and polls in the low single digits. Presidential elections are slated for 2019, but since Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship last July the Georgian politician has said he won’t stand, though he hinted that he was open to becoming prime minister.
Instead, Saakashvili has thrown what political weight he has behind Yulia Tymoshenko, opposition leader, former prime minister and head of Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, who very publicly joined him during his illegal border crossing in September. A populist hoping to make hay from the fracas Saakashvili has created, Tymoshenko is currently leading the presidential polls, ahead of Poroshenko by
a small margin.