You're reading: Saakashvili plans to visit Georgia after parliamentary elections, police promise to arrest him

Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili will be arrested if he crosses the Georgian border, Georgian Interior Minister Giorgi Mgebrishvili told reporters on Monday.

Saakashvili has recently told the Georgian media he will arrive in Georgia immediately after the results of the exit poll in the October 8 parliamentary elections are announced on Rustavi 2 television and that he will open his headquarters in Turkey on the Georgian border several days before the elections.

Saakashvili’s wife Sandra Roelofs, who is running for the post of a majority deputy from the Zugdidi district, says at almost all meetings with her supporters that “Misha’s return to Georgia is inevitable.”

In the meantime, Mgebrishvili said the former president will be detained if he appears in Georgia because he is on the wanted persons list for crimes. “The police will treat Saakashvili solely in accordance with current legislation if he crosses the Georgian border. He will be detained,” the minister said.