Kyiv court turns down prosecutor's motion to place Saakashvili under house arrest - UPDATED

Kyiv court turns down prosecutorUPDATED '>
# 11 December 2017 20:00 (UTC +04:00)

Kyiv's Pechersky district court has turned down the prosecutor's motion to place leader of the Movement of New Forces Party in Ukraine and ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who is accused by the Ukrainian authorities of trying to stage a coup sponsored by Russia, under around-the-clock house arrest for two months, APA reports quoting UNIAN.

The decision was announced by a judge of Kyiv's Pechersky district court at a hearing on Monday, December 11.

The judge noted that the court decided that "the prosecutor's petition in criminal proceedings ... for a preventive measure in the form of round-the-clock house arrest for the suspect, Saakashvili, should not be satisfied." The decision may be appealed at the Court of Appeals within five days from the date of the announcement. The full verdict is scheduled to be read out at 09:00 a.m. on December 14. Saakashvili was detained in Kyiv on December 8 and remanded in custody at the SBU's Security Service's pre-trial detention center. He announced hunger strike in protest against his detention. Saakashvili is suspected of attempted crime (Part 1 of Article 15 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), crime committed by prior agreement with a group of persons (Part 2 of Article 28), assistance to participants in criminal organizations and concealment of their criminal activities.

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22:30

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was brought to a court on Monday in Ukraine's capital Kiev where he is being tried on at least three criminal counts, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

During his hearing, he said he will continue his hunger strike, which he had started on Saturday, if the court sends him to prison.

"I showed [the world] how a president works and now I will show [the world] how he dies," Saakashvil told the judges.

He also sang the Ukranian national anthem along with his supporters.

Several Ukrainian lawmakers and Fatherland Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko attended the hearing.

An arrest warrant was issued for him, earlier this month, following a brief detention in Kiev -- in an incident that saw him climb onto the roof of his apartment building when police raided his address.

After serving as president of Georgia for 10 years, Saakashvili was appointed the governor of Ukraine's southern Odessa region by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in 2015 but he resigned the following year.

He has become an outspoken critic of Poroshenko, who he has accused of corruption.

The government has accused Saakashvili of being backed by an ally of deposed Ukranian President Victor Yanukovich.

Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship while in the U.S. earlier this year, rendering him stateless, but in September he crossed from Poland with the help of supporters.

His Georgian citizenship was revoked when he took up Ukrainian nationality in 2015.

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