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Saakashvili's Appeal in Ukrainian Citizenship Case Blocked by Kiev, Lawyer Says

© AFP 2023 / VASILY MAXIMOVMikheil Saakashvili
Mikheil Saakashvili - Sputnik International
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Ukrainian authorities are impeding the appeal process for the decision to deprive former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region Mikheil Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship, Pavel Bogomazov, Saakashvili's lawyer, told Sputnik on Monday.

KIEV (Sputnik) — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko revoked Saakashvili's Ukrainian citizenship on Wednesday, when it was discovered that the latter had violated Ukrainian law by providing incorrect information on his citizenship application.

"We are blocked by the state authorities, they do not provide the documents [necessary to lodge appeal]. They force us to rely only on the information that they wanted to share with us. They do not provide any statements or documents for lawyers," Bogomazov said.

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The lawyer stressed that such actions by Kiev were considered to be a violation of Saakashvili's rights for legal defense. The migration committee did not notify Saakashvili that the matter of revoking the citizenship was being considered and did not summon the ex-governor for explanations, Bogomazov added.

Saakashvili left Georgia in November 2013, after Giorgi Margvelashvili became the country's president. In July 2014, the prosecutor's office in Georgia pressed criminal charges against the ex-president, accusing him of embezzling immense sums from the state budget for personal use. Saakashvi was appointed governor of the Odessa region on Poroshenko’s initiative in late May 2015 and stripped of his Georgian citizenship after receiving a Ukrainian passport. Saakashvi resigned after only one year.

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