Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani said the Government of Georgia will start negotiations with the U.S. to extradite former President Mikheil Saakashvili to Georgia, if Saakashvili remains in the U.S.
On July 26, Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship. The official reason given by Ukraine is that Saakashvili allegedly hid information from the Ukrainian authorities that he was charged in Georgia. Saakashvili was in the U.S. at the time when his Ukrainian citizenship was revoked and is still in the U.S.
“If the former President stays there, we will of course need legal consultations with these countries, including negotiations and agreement on extraditing him,” Justice Minister Tsulukiani stated today at a press briefing.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia has asked Ukraine twice to extradite Saakashvili since 2015. However, according to Ukrainian law, citizens of Ukraine cannot be extradited to another country.
Saakashvili uploaded a post on his Facebook page on July 31 blaming Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in falsifying his signature in documents which allegedly prove that Saakashvili provided false information to Ukrainian authorities to obtain citizenship.
In an interview with Ukrainian media outlet 112, Saakashvili stated: “I was in Ukraine, I’m a Ukrainian citizen, I’m the leader of Ukrainian party, I’m a Ukrainian politician. I’m guessing that you want to get rid of me through Georgia, but I am a Ukrainian politician and I have thousands of activists in Ukraine. Which Georgia are you talking about? I am a Ukrainian politician, remember this!”
Petro Poroshenko granted Mikheil Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship in May 2015; he was then appointed as the governor of Odessa. Saakashvili then lost his Georgian citizenship. In November 2016, Saakashvili resigned from the governorship and moved to the opposition.
In 2014, Saakashvili was charged in absentia in Georgia with abuse of power and embezzlement related to his time in office as president. He has denied the claims and alleges they are politically motivated.