Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday asked the Georgian ambassador to Kyiv to leave Ukraine within 48 hours and return to Tbilisi for consultations relating to Mikheil Saakashvili. The court appearance led Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to call for the immediate release of Saakashvili, who is also a Ukrainian citizen.
"Right now, Russia is killing Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Saakashvili at the hands of the Georgian authorities," writes Zelensky on Twitter.
"We have repeatedly called on the official Tbilisi to stop this abuse and agree on Saakashvili's return to Ukraine. Our partners, in coordination with Ukraine, have also offered various rescue options. Today, I have instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the Georgian Ambassador to Ukraine, to express our strong protest and to ask him to leave Ukraine within 48 hours to hold consultations with his capital. Once again, I call on the Georgian authorities to hand over Ukrainian citizen Mykhailo Saakashvili to Ukraine for the necessary treatment and care. And I urge our partners to address this situation and not ignore it and save this man. No government in Europe has the right to execute people, life is a basic European value," Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted.
“You should apologize to the MEPs, to my family, to me, to the state of Ukraine, whose citizen you brought to this condition, and to all Georgians, for putting the founder of the Georgian state in this state, Papuashvili, look at me carefully!“ - the former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, said during his remote participation in the court session.
While making the said statement, he stood up and demonstrated his physical condition. According to him, all those who betrayed Georgia and Ukraine should be subjected to the strictest sanctions.
Saakashvili, who was Georgia’s president from 2004 to 2013, is serving a six-year sentence for abuse of power, a charge that he and his supporters say was politically motivated.
He is currently on trial on separate charges of violently dispersing an antigovernment rally in November 2007 and illegal border crossing.
