Tbilisi has forwarded a request to Ukraine to arrest and extradite former Georgian President and former Governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region Mikhail Saakashvili, Ukrainian Deputy Justice Minister Sergei Petukhov said on Tuesday.
“Ukraine has received a request [from Georgia] to find, arrest and extradite Mikhail Saakashvili,” he told the 112.Ukraina TV channel. According to Petukhov, the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office “has provided guarantees that the request is not based on political persecution and that the person in question will not be charged with crimes not mentioned in the extradition request.”
In mid-August, the Georgian Imedi TV channel published an official response received from the Prosecutor General’s Office which said that the documents necessary for Saakashvili’s extradition had been forwarded to Ukraine. Georgian Justice Minister Teya Tsulukiani said earlier that Tbilisi was ready to demand Saakashvili’s extradition from any country he would go to after being stripped of the Ukrainian citizenship.
Saakasvili currently resides in one of the European countries. Earlier he announced his plan to return to Ukraine on September 10.