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Border guards to confiscate Saakashvili’s passport if he tries to enter Ukraine

Earlier, Ukraine stripped Ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of his citizenship of the country

Mikheil Saakashvili Arkhip Vereshchagin/TASS

Mikheil Saakashvili

© Arkhip Vereshchagin/TASS

KIEV, August 11. /TASS/. Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service will confiscate the Ukrainian passport of ex-Governor of the Odessa region Mikheil Saakashvili, if he tries to enter the country, the Border Guard Service’s spokesman Oleg Slobodyan said on Friday.

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Former Georgian President Saakashvili reported to be in Lithuania

"If a citizen whose passport is no longer valid (the authorities in Kiev say Saakashvili’s Ukrainian passport is invalid - TASS) turns up on the Ukrainian border, under the law, we must confiscate his passport, and, accordingly, this citizen cannot be allowed into Ukraine," Slobodyan told the Ukrinform news agency commenting on the situation around Saakashvili. No other options are available, he added.

He noted, however, that the State Border Guard Service "does not monitor the movement of certain citizens…, if they have no significant legal problems and if they pose no threat to Ukraine’s national security."

According to Slobodyan, the issues related to revoking an individual’s citizenship or extraditing him to another country are within the competence of Ukraine’s State Migration Service and the Prosecutor-General’s Office.

Read also

Earlier on Friday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prosecutor-General Yevgeny Enin said that former Governor of the Odessa region and ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili would be able to cross the Ukrainian border only if he has an appropriate visa. According to Enin, refusal to grant him permission to enter the country to take part in the judicial inquiry in the case of revoking Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship is not a violation of his right to a fair trial.

On July 26, Ukraine’s Migration Service said in a statement posted on its website that Saakashvili had been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship in accordance with a decree issued by President Pyotr Poroshenko. He is currently travelling through Europe. After visiting Poland and Lithuania, he arrived in Hungary on Thursday. According to Saakashvili, he crossed these countries’ borders with his Ukrainian passport. He also announced his plans to return to Ukraine.

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