Ukraine Prosecutors Launch Probe Into Saakashvili's Expulsion In 2018

Ukrainian prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s deportation from Ukraine in 2018.

The Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office said on October 7 that the investigation was launched after Saakashvili filed a complaint over the "abduction and violent actions against" him and "his illegal" deportation to Poland last year.

In May, Ukraine's new President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reinstated Saakashvili's Ukrainian citizenship almost two years after it was removed by Zelenskiy’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko.

In February 2018, Saakashvili was detained in Kyiv, taken to the airport, and flown to Poland.

Days later, Ukraine's border service banned Saakashvili from entering Ukraine until February 13, 2021.

Saakashvili was granted Ukrainian citizenship and appointed to the Odesa governor's post by Poroshenko in 2015.

Authorities in Tbilisi stripped Saakashvili of his Georgian citizenship on grounds that Georgia does not allow dual citizenship.

When relations between Poroshenko and Saakashvili soured over reform efforts and the fight against corruption, the Ukrainian president sacked Saakashvili from the governor's post in November 2016.

In July 2017, after Saakashvili created the Movement of New Forces opposition party, Poroshenko issued a decree that stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship.

Based on reporting by 112.international and unian.ua