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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 13 september 2017
Saakashvili to face court hearing over border crossing

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — For- der guards at the Ukraine-
mer Odessa governor Poland border Sunday.
Mikhail Saakashvili has But returning to Ukraine is
been served legal notice also a risk for Saakashvili,
by Ukrainian authorities who is stateless because
after the stateless politi- he was forced to give up
cian forced his way across citizenship in his native
the border from Poland, Georgia when he received
a move that puts him on Ukrainian nationality.
a collision course with the “We are acting lawfully
government in Kiev. and protecting the law,”
Ukrainian border guards Saakashvili said during
and police turned up at an improvised press con-
the hotel in the city of Lviv ference outside his hotel
where Saakashvili was stay- Monday that his support-
ing Tuesday and presented ers livestreamed. He an-
him with an official docu- nounced plans to hold ral-
ment detailing his alleged lies in towns across Ukraine
violation of crossing the and to travel to the capital,
border illegally. Kiev.Poroshenko has said
Local media reported that that Saakashvili commit-
the ex-Georgian president ted a crime by entering the
and former governor of country.
Ukraine’s Odessa region Ukraine’s Interior Ministry Former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region Mikhail Saakashvili, sec-
was ordered to appear at said on Facebook Tues- ond right, signs a protocol on border crossing at a hotel in Lviv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017.
a court hearing over the in- day that five people who (AP Photo/ Mykola Tys)
cident on Monday. crossed into Ukraine from
The headstrong and di- Poland with Saakashvili
visive Saakashvili poses were arrested on criminal
a challenge to Ukrainian charges.
President Petro Porosh- Saakashvili leads a small
enko, who once was his Ukrainian political party
patron but revoked his called the Movement of
Ukrainian citizenship in July. New Forces and has vowed
Surrounded by supporters, to shake-up Ukrainian poli-
Saakashvili broke through tics now that he is back in
a cordon of Ukrainian bor- the country.q