Kiev Declines Tbilisi's Request to Extradite Ex-President Saakashvili

The Prosecutor General’s Office said that Mikhail Saakashvili’s extradition would be in violation of human rights and fundamental freedom. Saakashvili is currently the chairman of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s International Advisory Council on Reforms.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Kiev has refused to extradite former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to Georgia, citing the request is “politically motivated,” the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said on its website Wednesday.

“The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has come to the conclusion there is a risk that the request of extraditing Saakashvili made by the competent organs of Georgia is politically motivated,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

Saakashvili is currently the chairman of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s International Advisory Council on Reforms.

The Prosecutor General’s Office also said that Saakashvili’s extradition would be in violation of human rights and fundamental freedom that was accepted by the 1950 Convention.

“In such conditions the General Prosecutor’s Office as Ukraine’s central organ on issues of extradition has made the decision to deny the extradition [request] of M. Saakashvili and has informed its Georgian colleagues,” the statement reads.

Saakashvili served as Georgia's president from 2004 to 2013, his rule criticized as authoritarian. He was barred from running for president again in 2013, and left for the United States.

In 2014, a Georgian court charged him with abuse of power and misappropriation of public funds. Since then, Saakashvili claimed that his prosecution in Georgia was politically motivated.

In February, Ukrainian President Poroshenko signed a decree to appoint Saakashvili as his non-staff aide.