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Ukrainian Prosecutor General to fight Saakashvili’s release

Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko said the Prosecutor General’s Office was ready to invite foreign experts to confirm that the evidence against the former Governor of the Odessa region was genuine

Mikhail Saakashvili EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

Mikhail Saakashvili

© EPA-EFE/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

KIEV, December 12. /TASS/. The Office of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General will file an appeal over a refusal by a district court in Kiev to place the former Governor of the Odessa region, Mikhail Saakashvili, under house arrest, Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko said.

"We submitted all the evidence on him [Saakashvili] but nonetheless the judge let him go," Lutsenko said on the Freedom of Speech show on ICTV channel. "I’ll keep my emotions to myself but we’ll certainly file an appeal."

Lutsenko said the Prosecutor General’s Office was ready to prove the genuineness of all the photos and video footage featuring "the handover of $ 100,000 for a political show involving the purchase of services from the misfortunate people, who are brought in from no one knows where and stirred up against the authorities, and Saakashvili’s conversation with [businessman Sergei] Kucherenko."

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He also said the Prosecutor General’s Office was ready to invite foreign experts to confirm the evidence was genuine.

"We’re prepared to invite experts from the FBI or Scotland Yard so they would verify the genuineness of the tapes together with our experts," Lutsenko said. "I’m sure we’ll have to do it."

On Monday, Kiev’s Pechersky district court turned down the prosecutors’ petition to place Saakashvili under house arrest as a pretrial measure. He was released from custody for the period of investigation.

Saakashvili was detained on December 8 on charges of assistance to members of a criminal grouping. He does not recognize any guilt on his part and calls the accusations political motivated. In the early hours of Saturday, he went on an indefinite hunger strike while in a pretrial detention center.

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Ukraine crisis Mikhail Saakashvili

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