The Prosecutor General's Office does not suspect former Georgian president and ex-Odesa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili of staging a coup sponsored by a fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko, PG Yuriy Lutsenko said, according to ZIK.
"We do not suspect Mikheil Saakashvili. We suspect his right hand man Severion Dangadze in a coup attempt and financing such an attempt. We suspect Saakashvili only in assisting the members of a Kurchenko-Yanukovych criminal group," Lutsenko told ZIK.
According to the Prosecutor General, the reason Mikheil Saakashvili was detained by SBU operatives was because it is this agency that conducts the investigation.
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As UNIAN reported earlier, 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 an 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 (Part 2 of Article 256).
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Saakashvili has denied all charges.
On December 11, the Kyiv's Pechersky district court has turned down the prosecutor's motion to place Mikheil Saakashvili under around-the-clock house arrest for 2 months.
The decision may be challenged to the Court of Appeal within 5 days from the date of its announcement.