Imprisoned Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who holds Ukrainian citizenship, on Thursday called on Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky to include him in a prisoner exchange with Russia. This was reported by the AFP agency, writes TASR.
- Mikheil Saakashvili asked Zelensky to include him in the prisoner exchange.
- The ex-president of Georgia has had Ukrainian citizenship since 2015.
- He claims to be illegally imprisoned by the pro-Russian Georgian regime.
Saakashvili challenges Zelensky
The former pro-Western leader of Georgia, who was president from 2004 to 2013, became a Ukrainian citizen in 2015 and served as the governor of southern Ukraine’s Odesa region for about a year and a half.
In a post on the Facebook social network, Saakashvili asked Zelensky to include him “on the list of civilian prisoners of this war, with appropriate legal consequences.” According to his words, he is “illegally detained by the pro-Russian regime in Georgia.”
Saakashvili considers his punishment to be politically motivated
Last week, Georgian prosecutors accused Saakashvili of attempting a coup, which may extend his stay behind bars, AFP wrote. In his post, Saakashvili said that he was most recently “accused of sabotage for the benefit of a hostile foreign state” and also claimed that Zelensky’s name was also mentioned in the file.
The Ukrainian president had previously called on Georgia to allow Saakashvili to be transferred to Ukraine for treatment, but the Georgian authorities refused.
On Wednesday, Saakashvili was transferred from a private clinic back to prison to serve what he says is a politically motivated sentence. At the Vivamedi clinic in Tbilisi, the 57-year-old ex-president spent three years recovering from a 50-day hunger strike.
Relations between Ukraine and Georgia are lukewarm
Saakashvili, who headed the peaceful Rose Revolution in 2003 and led Georgia during the war with Russia in 2008, was detained in October 2021 – shortly after his return from exile in Ukraine, reports AFP.
Relations between Kyiv and Tbilisi are lukewarm; according to AFP, it is related to Georgia’s stance on the war in Ukraine and Saakashvili’s situation. Critics accuse the ruling Georgian Dream of pro-Russian orientation, but the party denies this.
