Georgian MoJ head hopes for Saakashvili’s extradition by Ukraine

Thea Tsulukiani, the head of the Georgian Ministry of Justice (MoJ), has expressed her hope that Ukrainian authorities will launch the procedure of Mikhail Saakashvili’s extradition to Georgia as soon as he returns to Ukraine. Ms Tsulukiani has reminded that Georgia requested Saakashvili’s extradition from Ukraine in 2014 and 2015.

Minister Tsulukiani has recalled that in April 2015 Ukraine refused to extradite the former Georgian president under the pretext that Saakashvili’s prosecution "was not only legal in nature." "This is not a political, but a legal and investigative-prosecutorial process," the “Georgia-Online” quotes Thea Tsulukiani as saying on air of the “Imedi” TV Company.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 26, a week after the visit of the Ukrainian President to Georgia, it became known that Mikhail Saakashvili had been deprived of Ukrainian citizenship. The decision of the Ukrainian President was explained by the fact that Mikhail Saakashvili had provided the false information in the application for a Ukrainian passport.

Mikhail Saakashvili’s advocates have not yet received documents from the Ukrainian state bodies about the deprivation of the former Georgia president of his Ukrainian citizenship; therefore, no lawsuit has been filed with the court yet, Pavel Bogomazov, one of Saakashvili’s advocates, has stated today, adding that the State Migration Service of Ukraine has not yet responded to advocates’ requests.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.