Mikhail Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia and the leader of the New Forces Party in Ukraine, has held a press conference in Warsaw. On Monday the politician was deported by Ukraine to Poland.
Here are some quotations:
“I had no intention to be right now in Warsaw. Yesterday the Ukrainian oligarchy decided to get rid of me by smuggling me out of the country. At the restaurant, where my friends and I were discussing our new project, I was detained and rounded up by riot policemen. They ill-treated me; they put a mask on my head and drove 45 minutes in the bus. Then they took a helicopter to transfer me to Boryspil. After that they flew me to Warsaw by plane.”
He says that they had no right to expel him from Ukraine.
“I want to address these idiots: before I returned from Poland, I had had no other citizenship but that of Ukraine. They should not have deprived me of citizenship. “
“I want them to take me back and try me in Ukraine. But how? The whole case is fake.”
“Poroshenko believes that he has beaten off the opponent whom he is fearful of the most. He falsified a case against me and threw me out of the country. The reason is not my being rich or having some protection, but the fact that they failed to buy me out. I refused to have deals with them in Odessa, i.e. ‘raise funds’ from local businessmen and refused to turn a blind eye to mayhem. I will recover my citizenship. My neck hurts after yesterday’s events, but I will be well again. We will wring the neck of the Ukrainian oligarchy. They will be send to prison, where they belong. I promise this to Poroshenko, Lutsenko and others.”
“I will be almost as efficient in Europe over the next few weeks, as I used to be in Ukraine. Saakashvili at liberty is more dangerous for Poroshenko than Saakashvili whom they persecuted in Ukraine. We will peacefully oust the oligarchs from power. “
Detaining Saakashvili in Kyiv
On February 12, masked men in uniform with the inscription State Border brutally detained Mikheil Saakashvili in the Suluguni restaurant in Kyiv.
Then Saakashvili was taken to Poland on an aircraft owned by an offshore company Sky Center Holding Corp., which belongs to Petro Poroshenko.
The State Border Service of Ukraine reported that, in line with all legal formalities, Miheil Saakashvili had been returned to the country where he came from [Poland Belsat.eu], breaking the Ukrainian legislation.
“This is called readmission – the return of an illegal immigrant to the country from which he came illegally,” the Ukrainian television channel TSN quoted senior source in local law enforcement.
In July 2017, President Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship, as in 2015, Saakashvili had reportedly presented false information in the application for citizenship and did not disclose a criminal record.
Saakashvili was also deprived of Georgian citizenship. His home country is demanding for him to be extradited back to Georgia. The court sentenced Saakashvili in absentia to 3 years in prison on power abuse charges.
