Minister “lied” Ukraine not requested my extradition – Saakashvili


Author
Front News Georgia
Georgia’s currently imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili on Wednesday accused justice minister Rati Bregadze of telling a lie on his extradition topic, after the official on July 4 claimed Kyiv had not officially requested the former president’s extradition as its citizen.
Saakashvili said Ukraine made such an appeal four months ago and that Ukraine’s consul also handed him the document in the Tbilisi Vivamedi civilian clinic, where Saakashvili has been receiving treatment since May 2022.
Bregadze’s statement came following Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s latest allegations on Monday that Tbilisi was “killing” Saakashvili “at the hands of the Georgian government”, before instructing the foreign office to summon the Georgian ambassador to send him back to Tbilisi for talks over the former president’s extradition.
Zelenskyy’s tweet came on the heels of a trial hearing in Tbilisi over the rally dispersal in Tbilisi in 2007 under Saakashvili’s presidency, with the convicted former president joining the session online.
Bregadze reiterated Saakashvili had been engaged in “self-harm” since his arrest in Tbilisi in 2021 to “escape justice” and that is why he looked unwell at the session.
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Mikheil Saakashvili