Movement of New Forces leader and former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been summoned to appear at the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office for questioning as a suspect in a criminal case on several counts on the morning of December 18, a summons posted on the PGO website on December 12 afternoon said.
As reported, on December 5, law-enforcement officers detained Saakashvili in his apartment in Kyiv, but his supporters blocked the police vehicle and freed him. He was declared wanted.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said that Saakashvili had received half a million dollars for his activities in Ukraine from businessman Serhiy Kurchenko, who is currently hiding in Russia, and presented an audio recording in support of his claim. Saakashvili said he does not know Kurchenko. Saakashvili supporter David Sakvarelidze said that the published recordings have been doctored and that he is planning to submit them for an expert evaluation abroad.
Saakashvili was detained for the second time late in the evening of December 8. He is charged with aiding and abetting members of criminal groups and concealing their criminal activities and is facing between five and ten years of imprisonment.
Following his detention, he was brought to a detention facility of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) in Kyiv, where he went on a hunger strike.
On Sunday, Saakashvili supporters held a rally and a protest in downtown Kyiv demanding the politician’s release, Lutsenko’s dismissal, and the adoption of laws on the impeachment of the president, on the Anti-Corruption Court, and on elections.
Saakashvili was taken to Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court on December 11 morning. On the evening of the same day, Judge Larysa Tsokol dismissed the prosecution’s motion to impose a restrictive measure in the form of full-time house arrest on Saakashvili for the duration of the investigation, and he was released in the courtroom. However, the prosecutor’s office may appeal this ruling in an appellate court in five days, the judge said. Lutsenko then said that the prosecution would do so.
