Detainee urges Ukraine protest
Ex-governor faces collusion case, wants president impeached
KIEV, Ukraine — From his jail cell in Ukraine’s capital, opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili called on supporters to rally for the impeachment of the president and declared a hunger strike.
Saakashvili, the former governor of the Odessa region who was stripped of his citizenship this summer, was arrested Friday night. He hasn’t been formally charged, but prosecutors say he colluded with Ukrainian businessmen tied to Russia to topple President Petro Poroshenko. Saakashvili rejects the allegations.
Saakashvili must be taken to court for arraignment within 72 hours of arrest. A spokesman for the prosecutor-general’s office, Andrei Lysenko, said Saturday that officials likely will ask for him to be held under house arrest after his court appearance.
He also faces the possibility of being sent back to his native Georgia, where he faces charges of abuse of office from his years as president in 2004-2013.
Saakashvili was the key figure of the 2003 Rose Revolution protests that forced Eduard Shevardnadze to resign the presidency. Saakashvili was elected the next year to replace him. During his tenure, he earned wide admiration for anti-corruption efforts, but critics said he showed a growing authoritarian streak.
He left Georgia in 2013, and in 2015 was named by Poroshenko to be Odessa governor. The next year, Saakashvili resigned, claiming Poroshenko and other officials were impeding changes in Odessa, and he became a strong critic of his former patron.
Georgia stripped his citizenship after his move to Ukraine, and Poroshenko this summer rescinded his Ukrainian citizenship, leaving Saakashvili stateless.
His lawyer, Ruslan Chernolutsky, said Saturday that Saakashvili had written a statement in jail saying “don’t be afraid of anything and boldly go to Sunday’s peace- ful demonstration” for Poroshenko’s impeachment.
He also said Saakashvili would refuse food while in detention.
Saakashvili’s detention and his call for a protest today raise tensions in a country shaken by two protest uprisings in this century. Poroshenko became president after bloody 2014 protests that drove his Russia-friendly predecessor to flee the country.