Ukrainian court rules Georgian Ex-President Saakashvili's deportation to Poland was lawful

The Ukrainian Supreme Court has dismissed the complaint of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and ruled that the country’s migration and border agencies did not violate the law when they deported Saakashvili from Ukraine to Poland back in February 2018.

Saakashvili was deported from Ukraine to Poland after being detained by armed men at a restaurant in Kiev early in February 2018.

A year before, in 2017, he was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship by his former ally, Ukrainian ex-President Petro Poroshenko while he was abroad.

However, Saakashvili, who was in the opposition of Poroshenko that time, forced his way back into Ukraine from Poland.

The Ukrainian migration and border agencies cited the “illegal stay” in the country as the reason for his deportation.

On May 28, 2019, new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky restored Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship, allowing him to return back to the country and continue his political agenda.

• Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s third president from 2004-2007 and again from 2008-2013, is accused in his homeland of the violent dispersal of anti-government mass protests on November 7, 2007, the unlawful raid of Imedi television company by riot police and the illegal take-over of property owned by media tycoon Badri (Arkadi) Patarkatsishvili.
• The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office has requested Ukraine on several occasions to extradite Saakashvili in previous years.
• The office also requested Saakashvili’s extradition from Poland after being deported there.