Zelensky vows to use all measures to return Saakashvili to Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that he will use all measures under his power to ensure the release of Georgian former president Mikheil Saakashvili from the Georgian prison and return him back to Ukraine. 

Saakashvili, who currently chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1. 

He returned to Georgia ahead of yesterday’s municipal elections to help his United National Movement opposition party to win the race and pave a way to early  parliamentary elections to replace the Georgian Dream authorities. 

In his video address Zelensky says that he has always been engaged in returning Ukrainian citizens back to the country and will do the same in terms of Saakashvili. 

Saakashvili was convicted in Georgia back in 2018 in absentia and has been sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of authority. 

He has also been charged with three other cases, related to illegal takeover of property and embezzlement which are still in courts. 

The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office has plans to file a new charge against him for illegally crossing the border from Ukraine to Georgia. 

Saakashvili says he is in political prison. 

Georgian state officials have claimed that Saakashvili’s arrest will not strain Ukrainian-Georgian ‘friendly relations.’