Poland urged to extradite ex-Georgian president
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
07.08.2017 08:23
Authorities in Georgia have called on Poland to extradite former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who arrived in Warsaw from the United States on Aug. 3, according to media reports.
Mikheil Saakashvili. Photo: PAP/Jakub Kamiński
Georgian prosecutors want Saakashvili deported to face criminal charges that he dismisses as trumped-up and politically motivated.
Saakashvili was in late July deprived of his adoptive Ukrainian citizenship to become the world's only stateless former president, reports suggest. On Thursday he turned up in Poland where he took part in anniversary events honouring victims of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising by Poles against the Germans.
While in Poland, Saakashvili told public broadcaster TVP Info that the April 10, 2010 crash of the Polish presidential plane near Smolensk, Russia may have been an “act of revenge” by Russian President Vladimir Putin against Poland’s President Lech Kaczyński, who died in the crash along with 95 others.
Kaczyński was “first on the list of Putin's enemies” for "not leaving Georgia alone with Russia and for saving Georgia’s statehood," Saakashvili suggested, adding that "the Russians had the technical resources to destroy the plane."
The former Georgian leader also called Putin "a professional killer" and said that “Lech Kaczyński died a hero’s death." He added that the late Polish president was a national hero of Georgia. (str/pk)
Source: Rzeczpospolita, TVP Info, Polskie Radio, VoA