Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of the Movement of New Forces and former head of Odesa Regional Administration, has filed a petition after returning to Ukraine on granting him status as a person in need of special protection, which is grounds for denial of his extradition to another country, Saakashvili’s lawyer Markiyan Halabala said.
“Saakashvili appealed to the State Migration Service’s department for the Lviv region on September 11 to be granted status as a person in need of special protection. It’s commonly called an ‘application for asylum’, but there is no such legal term,” Halabala told Interfax-Ukraine.
This status is among the reasons for denial of a person’s extradition, and there are also other reasons, he said.
“In particular, after the issuance of the decree on terminating Saakashvili’s citizenship, he automatically acquired status as a person without citizenship permanently residing in Ukraine, and, in line with Ukrainian law, the extradition of such persons is prohibited,” he said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko deprived Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship in July 2017.
Ukrainian Deputy Justice Minister for European Integration Serhiy Petukhov said on September 5 that the Ukrainian Justice Minister had received a request for Saakashvili’s arrest and extradition from the Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office.
On September 10, Saakashvili, accompanied by his supporters, entered Ukraine by actually forcing his way across the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said earlier on October 3 that there were some circumstances preventing Saakashvili’s extradition to Georgia.
