Georgian Foreign Ministry called Kyiv’s demand on Saakashvili interference in internal affairs

The demand of the Ukrainian side to the Georgian Ambassador Georgiy Zakarashvili to transfer the former President Mikheil Saakashvili to Ukraine is an interference in the internal affairs of Georgia. About it declared at the Georgian Foreign Ministry.

“The decision of the Strasbourg Court once again confirmed the highest standards of protection of Mikhail Saakashvili’s rights. Against the backdrop of such a development of events, the decision of the Ukrainian authorities causes significant damage to the strategic relations between the two countries and is a direct interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state,” the statement said.

Earlier, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg rejected the application of Saakashvili’s lawyers to release the former president for health reasons, which indicates a high protection of his rights, the Georgian Foreign Ministry recalled.

On July 4, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine order President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky expressed a strong protest to the Georgian Ambassador Zakarashvili because of the situation around Saakashvili and called on the Georgian authorities to transfer the former president of the country to Kyiv for further treatment. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also gave the ambassador an order to leave the country within 48 hours for consultations with the Georgian authorities. In turn, the Georgian Foreign Ministry called this decision an extreme form of aggravation of relations with Ukraine.

On July 3, for the first time in a long time, Saakashvili took part remotely in a meeting of the Tbilisi City Court, where he showed his emaciated body, and also called on the Georgian authorities to apologize for bringing him to such a state. The meeting was held on the case of the dispersal of an opposition rally on November 7, 2007. Saakashvili was detained in Georgia on October 1, 2021.

Saakashvili, who served as President of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, faced several criminal cases in the country, in two of which he was sentenced to a total of nine years in prison.