Kiev refuses to render Mikheil Saakashvili to Georgian prosecutor’s office

Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has refused to extradite ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili to the Georgian prosecutor’s office, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s press-office said today, on April 1.

“Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office says the request to extradite Saakashvili is politically motivated and will result in political persecution of the ex-president,” the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said in a statement. They say extradition will run contrary to the requirements of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950).

Earlier in February, Georgian prosecutor’s office applied to Ukraine for extradition of the ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili. However, as Tbilisi reported then, Ukraine refused to cooperate with Georgia in the issue despite the two countries’ agreements in the field of extradition.

Saakashvili left Georgia in November, 2013, a few days before the swearing-in ceremony of the incumbent President Georgy Margvelashvili.

In Georgia, he is wanted for abuse of power, organizing an armed assault against a parliamentarian, and embezzlement of several million dollars of government funds. Saakashvili has dismissed the charges calling them as "groundless and politicized."

For the time being, Mikheil Saakashvili heads the Ukrainian President’s Advisory International Council of Reforms and serves as President Petro Poroshenko’s aide.