Ministry of Justice of Ukraine: There are no grounds to extradite Saakashvili
Mikheil Saakashvili, the former head of the Odessa Regional State Administration, will not be extradited from Ukraine until the criminal proceedings against him are completed in Georgia, stated the Deputy Minister of Justice Denis Chernyshov in a comment on 112 Ukraine TV channel.
According to Chernyshov, there are no grounds for Saakashvili's extradition at the moment, as the he has not been convicted in Georgia.
“Nothing happened in Ukraine, except for Saakashvili's crossing the border. Those documents that came to us and to the Prosecutor General's Office against Saakashvili, they say that a criminal case is being considered against him in Georgia. This is not the next step in the extradition process, and the Ministry of Justice does not get involved in this. If Saakashvili is convicted in Georgia on the articles that Petukhov [Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Justice for European Integration] named in his conference, then it would partially be the prerogative of the Ministry of Justice,” he said.
He noted that Saakashvili has the right to turn to a Ukrainian court and appeal the president’s decree to deprive him of his citizenship.
“He has this right. Why he did not take advantage of this right, that's the question,” Chernyshov added.
As was previously reported, the prosecutor’s office considered the request of the Georgian authorities to extradite Mikheil Saakashvili to his homeland. If the prosecutor’s office agrees, the former head of the Odessa Regional State Administration may be extradited from the country.
On September 5, the Ministry of Justice received a request from the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office to arrest and extradite Mikheil Saakashvili, the ex-head of the Odessa Regional State Administration.