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Georgian Court Sentences Saakashvili In Absentia

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The Tbilisi city court has found former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili guilty of abuse of power

The Tbilisi city court has found former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili guilty of abuse of power in connection with a 2006 murder case and sentenced him in absentia to three years in prison.

Judge Giorgi Arevadze on January 5 announced the verdict against Saakashvili, Georgia’s president from 2004 until 2013, convicting him of abusing his presidential powers by trying to cover up evidence about the murder of Georgian banker Sandro Girgvliani, and issuing pardons for four men who were convicted of the killing.

Saakashvili, who rejects the charges as politically motivated, said on January 5 that his conviction was the result of pressure from one of his major political opponents in Georgia, former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who Saakashvili linked to Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom.

“The so-called ‘ruling’ against me by a Georgian court that is fully under control of Gazprom-shareholder Ivanishvili is absolutely illegal and contradicts all international and domestic regulations and common sense,” Saakashvili wrote on Facebook from Ukraine, where he currently resides and is an opposition politician.

“The trial of a president for using his right to pardon, which is not limited by any means, shows that the case is fully politically motivated,” Saakashvili said. “It also shows that Georgian authorities have not been able to find anything against me in the last five years — neither facts of corruption nor other violations of the law.”

Saakashvili said a simultaneous court hearing against him in Kyiv showed that “oligarchic authorities in Ukraine and Georgia are operating in synchronicity and in full coordination with each other” against him because he is “the leader of a battle against corruption, oligarchs, and the robbery of the people.”

Saakashvili said the world knew that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has been demanding both Georgian and Ukrainian authorities to implement repressive measures” against him.

Putin “repeated that in his recent press conference,” the 50-year-old Saakashvili said, claiming that talks aimed at “neutralizing” him were conducted between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Ivanishvili in Georgia several days before Poroshenko issued an order to strip him of his Ukrainian citizenship last summer.

“According to my sources, [the issue was also discussed] by Poroshenko and Putin in a telephone conversation on December 29, 2017,” Saakashvili wrote.

Saakashvili’s government-appointed lawyer, Sofio Goglichidze, said after the ruling that the court violated “a number of legal provisions and the constitution” in convicting former Georgian president.

“It is obvious that political persecution is going against Mikheil Saakashvili. It was impossible to deliver a guilty verdict in the case in accordance with the law,” Goglichidze said.

Girgvliani, who headed the foreign department of United Georgian Bank, was found dead in January 2006 outside of Tbilisi with multiple injuries after he was seen arguing in a bar with high-ranking Interior Ministry officials.

Saakashvili was the president of Georgia when Girgvliani was killed and issued presidential pardons for four Georgian men who were convicted of murder in the case in 2006.

In November 2014, when Saakashvili was no longer the Georgian president, prosecutors charged him and other former Georgian officials of being accomplices in the falsification of evidence presented in the murder trial.

Khatia Dekanoidze, a member of Saakashvili’s United National Movement party in Georgia, said the January 5 verdict in Tbilisi might help Ukrainian authorities extradite Saakashvili to Georgia.

“Nobody doubts that the charge was motivated and ordered,” said Dekanoidze, who served as the head of the Ukrainian National Police when Saakashvili was governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region in 2015-16.

“I do not exclude Mikheil Saakashvili’s extradition [to Georgia] because the administrative resources of the two countries are working together” against him, Dekanoidze said in Tbilisi.

Saakashvili supporters free him from van: I will die for Ukraine VIDEO

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Supporters of former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili released him from a vehicle of Ukrainian special service by breaking the back door.

After being released, Saakashvili addressed his supporters saying he “will die for Ukraine”. He called to gather on Maidan to liberate the country from “Poroshenko and his gang”.

“There are millions of us, we are strong, we are very strong. Let’s take to the streets, Poroshenko’s regime will be over,” he said.

Georgia Saakashvili stripped off Georgian citizenship

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f56619447f3be4_56619447f3c1f.thumbGeorgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has stripped former President Mikheil Saakashvili of his Georgian citizenship, RFE/RL reported.

The move on December 4 comes a day after Justice Minister Tea Tsulukani recommended the action because Saakashvili also had Ukrainian citizenship.

Saakashvili has been working as the governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region since May.

Saakashvili, who introduced reforms during nearly a decade in power in Georgia following the 2003 Rose Revolution, left the ex-Soviet republic after his presidency ended in November 2013.

The government that came to power after beating his party in 2012 parliamentary elections has accused him of fraud, organization of an assault, and abuse of office — charges he denies.

Saakashvili’s United National Movement party condemned the decision, saying that the move was done to bar Saakashvili from taking part in parliamentary elections next year.

Leaked tape exposes Georgia ex-President Saakashvili for ‘inciting bloodshed’

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ex-georgian presidentGeorgia is demanding explanations from Ukraine after a leaked tape implicated the governor of the Odessa region Mikhail Saakashvili (also Georgia’s former president), in calling for a violent coup in his home country.

Saakashvili, who resigned his presidential office in 2013 after almost a decade in power, is wanted at home on allegations of embezzlement and abuse of power. He was appointed a governor in Ukraine after a violent armed coup ousted its president in February 2014, an event that Saakashvili supported and praised.

The website called “Ukrainian revolution” has published a tape implicating Saakashvili in orchestrating a similar uprising in Georgia. In the conversations, which have not been independently verified, a man with a voice strongly resembling Georgia’s ex-leader is heard to be advising such a course to Nika Gvaramia, the head of Rustavi 2, one of Georgia’s biggest TV stations, and opposition leader Georgy Bokeria.

Rustavi 2 is currently in the middle of an ownership conflict. Opposition parties accuse the Georgian government of being behind it because the channel gives a lot of airtime to criticism of the country’s leadership. Some Georgian officials said Rustavi 2 is not a media outlet but a propaganda vehicle for the United National Movement, Saakashvili’s former party, to which Bokeriya belongs.

 

Erdogan poppet Saakashvili accused of defending Turkish commercial interests in Ukraine

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saak.thumbA dismissed Ukrainian official has accused former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of defending the interests of a Turkish firm, the Hurriyet Daily News reports, citing Doğan News Agency.

Saakashvili, who is now serving as a new governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region, slammed Denis Antonyuk, then president of Ukraine’s state-owned airline operator, during a meeting of the country’s aviation authority on June 26, accusing him of corruption.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had announced Antonyuk would be dismissed, in a move that would only be formalized with a cabinet motion on July 1.

Doğan News Agency reported on July 8 Antonyuk had fired back by filing a criminal complaint against Saakashvili.

Writing to Ukrainian Chief Prosecutor Victor Shokin, Antonyuk said the former Georgian president had no legal right to attend the aviation authority’s meeting. Furthermore, he argued, Saakashvili defended the rights of a Turkish firm and oligarch Igor Kolomoysky’s Ukrainian International Airlines (MAU).

The report did not mention the name of the Turkish company. Largely in the construction sector, Turkish companies have scores of major investments in Ukraine worth more than $2 billion.

 

Now Global Politicians, Ex. Georgian President Saakashvili now Ukraine’s Odesa Governor

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By RFE/RL,

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili shows off his identification card as the head of an advisory council in Kyiv in February

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili shows off his identification card as the head of an advisory council in Kyiv in February

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been appointed governor of Ukraine’s southwestern Odesa region, a move that could exacerbate tensions between Kyiv and Moscow amid Ukraine’s shaky cease-fire with Russian-backed separatists.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko made the announcement on May 30 at a televised event in the region’s capital city of Odesa alongside Saakashvili, calling the former Georgian president a “great friend of Ukraine.”

Interfax reports Poroshenko also signed a decree granting Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship.

The announcement followed a recommendation by Poroshenko’s cabinet that Saakashvili lead the Odesa region.

Saakashvili was Georgia’s president during its brief 2008 war with Russia over the Moscow-backed breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.

Many Western officials see that conflict as a precursor to the Kremlin’s seizure and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea territory in March 2014 and the ensuing war between Kyiv’s forces and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 6,100 people since April 2014.

The city of Odesa last year was the site of one of the deadliest civilian incidents since the conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine, with more than 30 pro-Russian activists dying after they reportedly sought refuge from a hostile crowd.

A city of 1 million people, Odesa lies less than 450 kilometers from Kyiv and hundreds of kilometers from the battle lines between central government forces and pro-Russian fighters who declared “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine.

Putin Critic

In April, Ukrainian authorities in Odesa said they detained more than 40 suspected members of a terror group who had allegedly planned a series of terrorist acts during celebrations marking the Orthodox Easter on April 12.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) also said in April it detained three people suspected of involvement in a series of bombings in Odesa, some of them targeting organizations with ties to soldiers fighting against Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.

A fierce and relentless critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Saakashvili is loathed by officials in Moscow and regularly mocked on state-run Russian television.

“Saakashvili is Head of the Odesa Region,” Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Twitter. “When the circus comes to town… Poor Ukraine.”

“Saakashvili — accused of numerous crimes against the Georgian people — gets appointed governor of Odesa,” senior Russian Foreign Ministry official Konstantin Dolgov wrote on Twitter. “This is deeply symbolic of Kyiv’s style of democracy.”

During nearly a decade in power following the 2003 Rose Revolution, Saakashvili introduced major reforms before leaving the ex-Soviet republic after his presidency ended in November 2013.

The government that came to power after beating his party in 2012 parliamentary elections has accused him of fraud, organization of an assault, and abuse of office — charges he denies.

Saakashvili has been serving as the head of Ukraine’s Consultative International Council of Reforms since February.

Poroshenko’s appointment of several foreigners to senior posts in the Ukrainian government has raised some eyebrows at home. He has called the moves an effort to find “innovative solutions in the government” due to the “extraordinary challenges facing Ukraine.”

With reporting by Interfax and RIA Novosti

Saakashvili ‘detained’ in absentia

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tbilisi city-courtTbilisi City Court accepted prosecution’s motion and ordered pre-trial detention of former President Mikheil Saakashvili in absentia,Civil.ge reported.

Preliminary court hearing – the stage when a presiding judge, among other issues, decides on the admissibility of evidence submitted by the parties – has been set for September 22.

Prosecutor’s office has charged Saakashvili with exceeding official powers in connection to break up of the anti-government protest rallies on November 7, 2007, and raid on and “seizure” of Imedi TV station.

“Ahead of the August war [six-year] anniversary Putin could not have imagined more desirable present than Georgian authorities ordering my arrest,” Saakashvili said in a video address from the US, released on August 1 before the court’s ruling was announced after midnight on Saturday.

“This will be one of the most shameful pages of Georgia’s history,” he said.

“I am not going to turn up upon summoning of prosecutor’s office, controlled by Gazprom shareholder [referring to Georgia’s ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili] – I will be very far whenever they summon me, but I will be very close when the Georgian people call me,” Saakashvili said.

Georgia opens criminal case against ex-president

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criminal-case-exThe Office of the Attorney General of Georgia stated that a criminal case has been launched against ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili.

As per the office, the case is opened in connection with Saakashvili not appearing before the investigative body on Monday for questioning, as the body had summoned him as a witness in a criminal investigation.

Saakashvili has left Georgia in November of last year. Since then, he has not returned to his country

But the former president issued a statement on Monday accusing the incumbent Georgian authorities of political persecution of opponents, and noted that he will not “take part in this farce.”