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Ukrainian Court Releases Saakashvili from Detention

by RFE/RL

   A Ukrainian court has released from detention opposition figure Mikheil
   Saakashvili, who is accused by prosecutors of assisting a criminal
   organization.

   Ukrainian prosecutors had sought to place Saakashvili under house
   arrest, but a judge on December 11 turned down the request.

   Saakashvili told journalists after the hearing that he planned to
   continue his political activities with the aim of "constitutional,
   calm, but very necessary transfer of power in the country," accusing
   the Ukrainian authorities of corruption and "usurping power."

   But he said he "has no presidential ambitions" himself.

   Judge Larysa Tsokol told Kyiv's Pechera district court that the
   prosecutors' request to put Saakashvili under house arrest pending
   trial was "dismissed," prompting applause by Saakashvili's supporters
   in the courtroom.

   Saakashvili praised the judge's ruling as "courageous," and said, "It
   means not everything is lost in Ukraine."

   Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko later said on ICTV that he
   will appeal the judge's ruling.

   Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Ukraine's Justice Ministry is also
   still weighing an extradition request from Georgia for the former
   Georgian president to face criminal charges related to his years in
   power there.

   Saakashvili has dismissed the charges against him in both countries as
   trumped up.

   "I don't consider myself a detainee, I consider myself a prisoner of
   war," he told journalists before the December 11 hearing.

   The court was packed with journalists and lawmakers as the custody
   hearing for Saakashvili, who is also an ex-governor of Ukraine's Odesa
   region, which dragged on late into the evening of December 11.

   A crowd of about 200 Saakashvili supporters earlier scuffled with
   police outside.

   Saakashvili was detained late on December 8, after an initial attempt
   to place him in custody failed on December 5 when supporters crowded
   around a police vehicle where he was being held after a raid on his
   apartment and freed him. On December 9, prosecutors said they would ask
   a court to place him under house arrest with electronic monitoring
   pending trial.

   On December 10, thousands of people demonstrated in central Kyiv to
   demand Saakashvili's release and to call for the impeachment or
   resignation of President Petro Poroshenko.

   Ukrainian authorities say Saakashvili is suspected of abetting an
   alleged "criminal group" led by former President Viktor Yanukovych, who
   fled to Russia after his ouster in February 2014. They also have
   suggested that Saakashvili's protests are part of a Russian plot
   against Ukraine.

   Calling himself Russian President Vladimir Putin's "biggest enemy in
   the post-Soviet space," Saakashvili said that his accusers "must be
   nuts."

   He said he was "the person who took Russia's first strike" -- a
   reference to the five-day war in which Russian forces drove deep into
   Georgia in 2008, during his 2004-13 presidency in the South Caucasus
   country.

   "I consider myself a prisoner of Ukrainian oligarchs," Saakashvili said
   in an apparent reference to Poroshenko, a chocolate-and-candy tycoon
   who critics say has not sufficiently divested himself of his business
   interests.

   Saakashvili called for calm when police scuffled with supporters in the
   street outside and a smoke bomb was apparently thrown, saying that "we
   don't want confrontation."

   Saakashvili's lawyer asked the judge to cancel the hearing, saying that
   his client had not been served papers about his case in person and in
   the presence of an attorney and contending that was illegal.

   Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is also an opposition
   leader, was in the courthouse and likened Poroshenko to Yanukovych.

   "You are jailing your opponents -- the way Yanukovych did. Keep in mind
   how it all ended," she said.

   Saakashvili became governor of Ukraine's Odesa region in 2015 but quit
   a year later, accusing the authorities of sabotaging reform efforts in
   the region and nationwide. He is now a vocal opponent of Poroshenko, an
   acquaintance from the time when both attended university in Kyiv in the
   Soviet era.

   Saakashvili's lawyer and supporters said on December 9 that the
   opposition leader had declared a hunger strike to protest his arrest.

   [With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, AP, Reuters, UNIAN,
   Interfax, TASS, and AFP]