Gov’t won’t transfer Saakashvili if Ukraine requests – justice minister

Georgian Justice Minister Rati Bregadze said on Thursday that the current government was expected not to transfer arrested former President Mikheil Saakashvili to Ukraine if Kyiv requested this per the ongoing investigation there involving Saakashvili, who holds Ukrainian citizenship and took an official post there before being arrested in Tbilisi last October. 

Bregadze said that the domestic and international practice prohibited the transfer of individuals if they were convicted or faced charges in another country, noting that the former president had been convicted in two separate cases, while three other cases were pending. 

The minister also accused Saakashvili and his circle of “targeted attacks” on the medical personnel in the Vivamedi clinic in Tbilisi, where the former president is undergoing treatment now, stressing that all conditions had been ensured by the state for the wellbeing of the former president. 

Saakashvili and his family, however, point to “critical condition” of the ex-president and are demanding transfer abroad for treatment.