“UNM” Party confirms Saakashvili’s return to Georgia

Mikhail Saakashvili is indeed in Batumi, but he will not appear in public officially until tomorrow, after the end of the voting in the municipal elections, the “United National Movement” (UNM) Party reports.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that today, Mikhail Saakashvili has announced that he returned to Georgia and then clarified that he stayed in Batumi. The politician urged his supporters to take part in voting in the municipal elections with him on October 2. He also called on them to gather in the centre of Tbilisi on October 3. In turn, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) assured that Mikhail Saakashvili did not cross the Georgian border. The leader of the “Georgian Dream” Party called a video of the former Georgian president staged.

Mikhail Saakashvili is indeed in Batumi, says Murman Dumbadze, a member of the “United National Movement” Party, founded by Mikhail Saakashvili. According to Murman Dumbadze, Mikhail Saakashvili will not appear in public officially until the end of the voting in the municipal elections on October 2. “Tomorrow, at 8:05 a.m., we will show Mikhail Saakashvili officially. I think that we must act promptly, and in no case should he appear [before the end of the voting],” Murman Dumbadze said as quoted by a news agency.

Mikhail Saakashvili was sentenced in absentia in Georgia to three years of imprisonment in a case on abuse of power when pardoning those convicted of the murder of businessman Sandro Girgvliani and six years of imprisonment in a case on the beating of MP Valery Gelashvili in 2005. Mikhail Saakashvili also faced other charges.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 1, 2021 at 02:16 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.