Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Does Not Exclude Extradition of Saakashvili to Georgia

Yuri Lutsenko, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, has not excluded the extradition of Georgia’s ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili to Georgia, when he arrives back in Ukraine.

The information was released by the Ukrainian Apostrophe, which says that the Ukrainian Prosecutor General held a meeting with bloggers and Lutsenko said that "he will be forced to extradite Saakashvili to Georgia should he come back to Ukraine."

However, Lutsenko added that it will happen only if there is a new request from Georgia.

Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship around a week ago. If he returns to Ukraine, he will be deported to Georgia and held responsible for various charges, officially raised against him in 2014.

Georgia’s Justice Minister, Thea Tsulukiani said a few days ago that the Georgian Prosecutor's Office addressed Ukraine twice, in both 2014 and 2015, to extradite the ex-president of Georgia. However, the Ukrainian side did not comply with the request because they were unable to rule out any discriminatory aspects.

She added that that the Ukrainian side has changed their position lately; but as Saakashvili is not currently in Ukraine, they cannot extradite him now.

“As soon as Saakashvili arrives in Ukraine, they can hand him over on the basis of our request sent to Ukraine two years ago,” she said.

By Thea Morrison