You're reading: Georgia considering Ukrainian Radical Party member Savytska’s extradition

Georgian law enforcement agencies are considering the possibility of extraditing Iryna Savytska, a member of the Ukrainian opposition Radical Party who was detained in Batumi more than a month ago.

Savytska and her underage son have lived in Georgia since 2016. Ukraine started Savytska’s prosecution in 2015 on suspicion of an economic crime.

Serhiy Bily, the general director of the Ukrainian company Snack Export, who came to Tbilisi on August 21, told journalists that Savytska, his company’s employee, had been unlawfully detained in Georgia at a request by Ukrainian prosecution authorities.

“Iryna was detained on political motives to discredit Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada deputy Serhiy Rybalka of the Radical Party,” Bily said.

Bily said he had come to Georgia to tell the Georgian public and political forces that Savytska could not be extradited to Ukraine, where “her life is in danger posed by the incumbent authorities.”

“The Ukrainian prosecutors have charged Iryna Savytska with an absurd crime. She prepared documents and filed a lawsuit against another company,” Bily said.

Lawyers have filed a petition with a Georgian court on amending Savytska’s restrictive measure in light of new circumstances, particularly, a decline in her 13-year-old son’s health, he said.