Georgian prosecution still wants extradition of the former Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to his home country despite the fact that his Ukrainian citizenship has been restored, prosecutor Koka Katsitadze said on Thursday
TBILISI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th May, 2019) Georgian prosecution still wants extradition of the former Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to his home country despite the fact that his Ukrainian citizenship has been restored, prosecutor Koka Katsitadze said on Thursday.On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy restored the Ukrainian citizenship of Saakashvili, who landed in Kiev the next day.
"Neither the deprivation nor restoration of citizenship pertains to his criminal prosecution and extradition," Katsitadze said.
Georgian Prosecutor General's Office launched legal procedures seeking Saakashvili's extradition long ago and is determined to continue them, he added.
Georgia seeks its ex-president's extradition since 2014, imputing to him several criminal felonies, such as abuse of power and $5 million fraud in state funds. In 2015, Saakashvili was appointed governor of Ukraine's Odessa region by the former Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, and denounced his Georgian citizenship upon obtaining a new Ukrainian passport. In the next two years, Kiev rejected several extradition requests by Tbilisi before ousting Saakashvili in July 2017 and recalling his citizenship. Since then, Saakashvili resided in Warsaw, Poland.
