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Former president arrested
Authorities in Georgia arrested ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili on Friday shortly after he returned from exile, setting up a potential showdown with his supporters in the opposition.
His opponents in the ruling Georgian Dream party had warned Saakashvili would be arrested on a 2018 abuse of office conviction if he returned, and Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said he had quickly been detained.
“Georgia’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili has been arrested today and sent to jail,” Garibashvili told a news conference in the capital Tbilisi.
The 53-year-old’s arrest will almost certainly spark upheaval in Georgia, a small former Soviet republic in the Caucasus that has been plagued for years by political instability.
In a video posted on social media on Friday morning, Saakashvili said he was in the western city of Batumi and had returned to Georgia from Ukraine to ensure the fairness of Saturday’s polls.
“I risked my life and freedom to be back,” Saakashvili said.
“I call on everyone to go to the elections and vote for the United National Movement,” he said, referring to Georgia’s main opposition party which he founded.
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