TEHRAN, December 5 - Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has been snatched from the rooftop of his Kiev flat in a dramatic arrest following a feud with Ukraine's president.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - As protesters blocked the police van carrying Saakashvili, who left Georgia in 2013 and served as governor of Ukraine's Odessa region in 2015-16, the authorities accused the firebrand politician of working to overthrow the government.
Prosecutor general Yury Lutsenko said at a briefing that Saakashvili received $500,000 to hold protests from an associate of former president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled amid mass street demonstrations in 2014.
The security service had said Saakashivili would face charges of aiding a criminal organization. The politician's lawyer previously claimed he was accused of attempting a coup.
Since he forced his way across the Polish-Ukrainian border with supporters in September, Saakashvili has been holding street protests calling for reforms of the pro-Western government and the impeachment of president Petro Poroshenko.
Once allies, they had a falling out in which Saakashvili accused the president of corruption.
He led several hundred people on a march in Kiev on Sunday. The Ukrainian authorities have denied his application for asylum and said he is in the country illegally.
Saakashvili climbed onto the roof when heavily armed security forces stormed his flat in downtown Kiev on Tuesday morning.
“Poroshenko is a thief! Poroshenko is a traitor to Ukraine!” he yelled to supporters below, reportedly threatening to jump.
Law enforcement agents took him off the roof and put him in a van, but crowds of protesters were preventing the vehicle from taking him away. Police deployed tear gas against some of those blocking the van.
Troops were attempting to quell the unrest as protesters chanted and moved cars in downtown Kiev.
Source: Telegraph
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