Ukrainian Security Service reopens criminal case against Saakashvili
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) resumed investigation against the former President of Georgia and the leader of the Ukrainian political party Movement of New Forces, Mikheil Saakashvili, announced his lawyer Ruslan Chernolutsky on Facebook.
Chernolutsky released the General Prosecutor's Office letter, which refers to the renewal of the investigation conducted by the SBU Main Investigation Department in Kyiv region.
The statement indicates that the investigation was resumed by the decision of the prosecutor dated March 1, 2019 "due to the need to conduct further investigative and procedural actions in criminal proceedings.”
According to data of the Unified Register of Judicial Decisions, in February, the SBU gained access to the Saakashvili case file as part of a criminal investigation of an attempt to seize power in Ukraine.
"According to the criminal case materials, during the protest rally, at 5 Mikhail Grushevskogo street in Kyiv, radical protesters planned to use physical force, firearms and ammunition (grenades), smoke bombs, sticks, shields, bricks, tires and gasoline, in order to seize power at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The plan was to attack it on one of the days after October 17, 2017, in the presence of the people's deputies of Ukraine. The goal was to force people's deputies, with use of weapons, to vote for the impeachment of President of Ukraine and to disband themselves, " states the appeal of the Security Service of Ukraine.
The case against Saakashvili was suspended on March 6, 2018 after the international legal investigative order was sent to Netherlands by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office in regard to the Saakashvili investigation.
In December 2017, the Prosecutor General’s Office presented a report accusing Saakashvili of assistance to the criminal organization led by the fugitive oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko.