You're reading: Trial of Saakashvili ally Sakvarelidze begins

Lviv Oblast’s Mostyska Court on March 14 started the trial of David Sakvarelidze, an associate of ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

The court rejected the defense lawyer’s motion to return the indictment to the prosecutors due to alleged legal violations.

The court scheduled the next hearing in the case for March 22.

In September Sakvarelidze was charged with illegally transporting Saakashvili across the border during the ex-president’s dramatic breakthrough into Ukraine on Sept. 10. He believes the case to be political persecution by President Petro Poroshenko.

Sakvarelidze, a top official of Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces party and a former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, faces up to seven years in jail if convicted.

Sakvarelidze is also accused of resisting and obstructing police officers and disrupting the work of a border checkpoint. Four more Saakashvili supporters have been charged in criminal cases linked to his crossing of the border.

Sakvarelidze said in February that Khrystyna Hladysheva, the judge who is considering his case, had been transferred from the Rivne District Court to the Mostyska Court very recently – on Jan. 9 – for just a six-month period. He argued that this appointment was due to political reasons.

Hladysheva, who could not be reached for comment, is also running as a candidate for the Council of Judges.

Her husband has applied for the job of a Ukrainian deputy consul in the Polish city of Krakow, according to his electronic asset declaration. The Ukrainian consul in Krakow is Oleh Mandyuk, who was a campaign manager for Poroshenko during his election in 2014.

Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces claimed that Hladysheva would likely be elected to the Council of Judges, and her husband would become a deputy consul if she made a decision against Sakvarelidze and in favor of the authorities.

Saakashvili denies illegally crossing the border, saying that he had already passed through the Polish checkpoint and was on Ukrainian territory by the time he was carried by hundreds of protesters through the Ukrainian one. He also argues that crossing the border “in cases of extreme necessity” — such as the bomb threat announced by the authorities after his arrival — without undergoing border checks is legal under Ukrainian law.

Saakashvili also believes the authorities’ refusal to let him enter Ukraine was illegal since, as a permanent stateless resident of Ukraine, he had a right to enter it without a visa.

In September Saakashvili was fined Hr 3,400 for crossing the border illegally – by a judge critics say is loyal to the authorities. Under Ukrainian law, crossing the border without passing border controls is an administrative offense, not a criminal one.

Saakashvili’s border crossing in September came after he was stripped by Poroshenko of citizenship in July. Saakashvili believes the move was unconstitutional, unlawful and politically motivated, while Poroshenko denies the accusations.

Saakashvili was deported from Ukraine to Poland without a court warrant on Feb. 12. Under Ukrainian law, forced deportation is only possible if authorized by a court.

Saakashvili’s detention and expulsion violated numerous laws, lawyers for Saakashvili and independent attorneys said. The authorities deny accusations of wrongdoing, claiming that Saakashvili’s deportation was legal.

In January a court placed Saakashvili under nighttime house arrest in a criminal case, which expired on Feb. 6. Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has accused Saakashvili of accepting funding from Serhiy Kurchenko, an ally of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, to finance anti-government demonstrations and plot a coup d’etat.

Saakashvili argues that his expulsion from Ukraine shows that the case was fabricated and political, and the authorities could not lawfully convict him.

The prosecutors’ alleged evidence against Saakashvili was dismissed by independent lawyers as weak, and he was released from custody by Pechersk Court Judge Larysa Tsokol on Dec. 11. Tsokol ruled that Saakashvili’s detention by the Security Service of Ukraine without a court warrant and any other legal grounds on Dec. 5 was unlawful.

In October and November, seven Georgian associates of Saakashvili were deported to Georgia by Ukrainian authorities without court warrants, with the Georgians claiming they had been kidnapped and beaten. Under Ukrainian law, forced deportation is only possible if authorized by a court.

Human Rights Ombudsman Valeria Lutkovska said in November that three of the Georgians had been illegally kidnapped and deported by the National Police without court warrants. The authorities denied accusations of wrongdoing, but failed to present the legal grounds for the deportations.

In November the police also arrested and charged three major participants of the protest tent camp in front of the Verkhovna Rada co-led by Saakashvili.