The Prosecutor General’s Office said late on Sept. 8 that it would not consider Georgia’s extradition request for ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and would send it back to the Ukrainian Justice Ministry.
Saakashvili, who was stripped by President Petro Poroshenko of his Ukrainian citizenship in July, is planning to come back to Ukraine through the Krakovets checkpoint on the Polish border on Sept. 10. He believes the decision to strip him of his Ukrainian citizenship to be illegal and unconstitutional, while the Ukrainian authorities say they will not let him enter the country.
Larysa Sargan, a spokeswoman for Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, said on Facebook that the Justice Ministry should consider the latest extradition request, because the relevant case against Saakashvili has already been sent to a Tbilisi court.
Under Ukrainian law, requests on cases that have been sent to trial must be considered by the Justice Ministry, she said.
Deputy Justice Minister Serhiy Petukhov said on Sept. 5 that the ministry had received an extradition request from Georgia and sent it to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The request concerns four criminal cases into alleged embezzlement, abuse of power and abuse of power with the use of force, Petukhov said. The Ukrainian authorities have begun to consider his extradition, he added.
Petukhov declined to comment on Sept. 8 whether the ministry would consider the request.
In 2015, Ukraine rejected two previous extradition requests from Georgia for Saakashvili, arguing that the moves had been politically motivated. The previous requests concerned criminal cases into alleged embezzlement, abuse of power during crackdowns on opposition TV channel Imedi and on demonstrators and an attack on lawmaker Valery Gelashvili.
Saakashvili’s ally David Sakvarelidze told the Kyiv Post the cases in the current extradition request were different from the ones involved in the previous requests. Petukhov declined to comment on how this request was different from the previous ones.
If Ukrainian authorities believe Saakashvili doesn’t have a legal link to Ukraine anymore, they had no right to accept this extradition request, Saakashvili’s lawyer Markiyan Halabala told the Kyiv Post.
But if they consider Saakashvili a stateless permanent resident of Ukraine, they must let him into the country because such residents have a right to enter Ukraine without a visa, according to Saakashvili’s lawyers. Moreover, if Saakashvili is considered a permanent resident of Ukraine, he cannot be extradited to Georgia under Ukrainian law.
The government’s critics saw the extradition request as a result of a bargain between Poroshenko and Georgian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili aimed at intimidating Saakashvili in the run-up to his planned arrival to Ukraine on Sept. 10.
Meanwhile, Oleh Slobodyan, a spokesman for the State Border Service, said that border guards at the Krakovets checkpoint would be reinforced on Sept. 10. Moreover, barbed wire was set up at the checkpoint.
Batkyvshchyna party leader Yulia Tymoshenko said that she would go to Krakovets on Sept. 10 to support Saakashvili.
When Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of his citizenship in July, he argued that he former Georgian president had submitted incorrect information when applying for citizenship in 2015.
Saakashvili says that no proof of this has been provided, and that the cancellation of his citizenship violates both Ukrainian and international law. Ukrainian authorities have so far refused to give Saakashvili documents on the loss of his citizenship, or specify the legal grounds for the cancellation.
Saakashvili’s lawyers argue that the cancellation of Saakashvili’s citizenship is illegal because it violates the Constitution and due process, and is politically motivated.
