Responding to a claim that conducting a search in the apartment after 22:00 is prohibited by law, Yuriy Hrymchak noted: "Well, theoretically, it is but that's not the case when investigative actions are underway to detain a person who is on wanted list,” Hromadske Radio reports.
“When they came to Kostyolna Street, it was at 7:00 (December 5) because the investigative actions [have to] take place from 6:00 to 22:00. At 7:00, they came and knocked on the door. No one answered, no one opened that door, although there was, in fact, a lawyer inside. Then they raided the place, searched the apartment and ran around the roof trying to catch him. But now, when they detain someone who is suspected of a crime after he escaped from detention, I think this right does not apply,” he said.
Read alsoMikheil Saakashvili detained in Kyiv"As for political persecution, Mr. Saakashvili is not a political figure in Ukraine. He is an apartheid, a stateless person, he has no right under our legislation to conduct political activities. But he does anyway. And certainly no one has the right in a time of war to call for the overthrow of the state system. But he does it. As far as I understand, he does this for the money provided by our fugitives, according to the evidence that was provided by the PGO," the Minister stated.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on the evening of December 8, Saakashvili was detained and taken to the SBU remand center. The Prosecutor General's Office declared Saakashvili wanted under three articles of the Criminal Code: an attempt on a crime (part 1 Article 15), committed by prior agreement with a group of persons (part 2 Article 28), and assistance to members of a criminal organization and concealment of their criminal activity (part 2 Article 256).
Read alsoLutsenko says law enforcers showed "unacceptable weakness" as Saakashvili "released" by crowdProsecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said that Saakashvili had set up protests to seize state power in Ukraine and help members of the criminal group of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and businessman Serhiy Kurchenko in halting their criminal prosecution.
Saakashvili refuted all accusations.
UNIAN memo. In late July, President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree to terminate Saakashvili's citizenship of Ukraine. According to Anton Herashchenko, a member of the Interior Ministry's collegium, Saakashvili was stripped of citizenship for providing false information when applying for it – in particular, regarding his criminal record in Georgia.
Soon after, the ex-president of Georgia left Ukraine.
On September 5, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Serhiy Petukhov said that Georgia had asked Ukraine to search for, detain, and extradite Saakashvili.
On September 10, Saakashvili managed to cross the Polish-Ukrainian border at the Shehini checkpoint with the assistance of a crowd of his supporters.
On October 3, Lutsenko said that after Saakashvili's return to Ukrainian territory, law enforcers began an extradition verification.
On October 24, Lutsenko said that Saakashvili could be deported since there were no circumstances that would rule out the possibility of this procedural action.
On December 5, the prosecutor general said that the issue of Saakashvili’s deportation or extradition was not on the agenda.
