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Georgia’s Saakashvili says to continue political activity in spite of charges

Georgia Materials 31 July 2014 04:31 (UTC +04:00)
Georgia’s former President Mikhail Saakashvili believes that the ruling of the country’s Office of the Main Prosecutor to being him to trial and the issuance of charges to him pursues the goal of restricting his political activity and freedom of movement around the world, ITAR-TASS reported.
Georgia’s Saakashvili says to continue political activity in spite of charges

Georgia's former President Mikhail Saakashvili believes that the ruling of the country's Office of the Main Prosecutor to being him to trial and the issuance of charges to him pursues the goal of restricting his political activity and freedom of movement around the world, ITAR-TASS reported.

Saakashvili, who is currently in Budapest, said this in an interview with Rustavi-2 television channel Wednesday night.

"Someone is obviously dismayed by my current activity in connection with events in Ukraine," he said, adding that did not plan to wrap up his political operations.

"I visited Albania recently and now I'm in Hungary at Prime Minister Victor Orban's invitation and I plan visiting a range of other nations soon," Saakashvili said. "I'm not going to ask political asylum wherever as I don't need this."

He made this comment soon after a meeting with Prime Minister Orban who told Rustavi-2 on his part he was not going to meddle with Georgia's internal affairs.

"As a prime minister of Hungary, I have a duty to care for the development of friendly relations with Georgia and I'd also like to say Saakashvili is a friend of mine," Orban said. "He is a man who did much for reforms in Georgia."

Main Prosecutor's Office of Georgia issued a decree July 28 to bring Saakashvili to justice on charges of abuse of office. If his guilt under these charges is proven, he may face a jail term of five to eight years.

Along with Saakashvili, the prosecutors also issued a resolution to bring to accountability the former Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, the former Main Prosecutor Zurab Adeishvili, and the former Tbilisi mayor Gigi Ugulava.

The charges against all of them concern the dispersal of a peaceful rally November 7, 2007, an illegal intrusion into the editorial office of Imedi television channel on the same day and criminal offenses committed to misappropriate the property of businessman Arkady Patarkatsishvili.

Investigation of this and other cases, in connection with which Saakashvili was summoned to the Main Prosecutor's Office, is nearing completion, the report said.

March 22, the prosecutors said Saakashvili was featured as a witness in several criminal cased linked to the death of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. Also, investigators were suspicious of Saakashvili's decision to pardon four individuals convicted of murder in 2006.

Saakashvili said he had no plans to come to Tbilisi.

July 26, a summons was handed to his mother, who lives in Tbilisi. It said he was supposed to turn up at the Prosecutor's Office for an interview July 28 as an eyewitness.

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