Mikheil Saakashvili detained in Georgia

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been detained. This was announced by the Prime Minister of the Republic Irakli Garibashvili, the Georgian Channel One reports.

According to Garibashvili, Saakashvili is currently under arrest in one of Georgia’s penitentiary institutions.

“Law enforcement agencies had preliminary information about his movement from Ukraine to Georgia, and this process was under complete control,” Garibashvili said.

According to him, the Georgian special services chose “a time and place so that the factors preventing [Saakashvili’s] detention would be minimal,” the publication “Novosti Gruziya” reports .

Before his arrest, Saakashvili posted a video in which he said, "They'll probably arrest me in Tbilisi now, but I'm not afraid of anything." He also said he "came to help you" and called on people to take part in the municipal elections that will be held in Georgia on October 2.

Updated : Saakashvili is in Rustavi prison near Tbilisi, Sputnik Georgia reports .

• Mikheil Saakashvili was the president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013. He left the country shortly before the end of his presidential term. After that, four criminal cases were opened against him, two of which resulted in convictions in 2018.
• In late September, Saakashvili promised to return to Georgia. On October 1, he announced that he had arrived in the country. Georgian authorities, who had previously spoken of their intention to arrest Saakashvili upon his return, said that the former president had not crossed the Georgian border.