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Saakashvili files lawsuit against Ukrainian Migration Service

After being dismissed as Odessa regional governor, Saakashvili left Ukraine and almost immediately was stripped of Ukrainian citizenship
Mikhail Saakashvili Sergei Karpov/TASS
Mikhail Saakashvili
© Sergei Karpov/TASS

KIEV, October 25. /TASS/. Mikhail Saakashvili, the leader of Ukraine’s Rukh Novykh Sil (or the Movement of New Forces) and the former president of Georgia, has filed a lawsuit against the Ukrainian State Migration Service.

"We will file an appeal against this miserable paper. It is unclear what they will say, because not a single law has been implemented so we are filing a lawsuit against them before they say it is too late to do that, we are filing a lawsuit against the Migration Service," Saakashvili told the NewsOne TV channel.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian authorities announced that Saakashvili’s application for a refugee status had been rejected, adding that he may be deported from the country. After that, the leader of Rukh Novykh Sil came to stay in the tent camp set up by protesters outside the parliament building in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

After being dismissed as Odessa regional governor, Saakashvili left Ukraine and almost immediately was stripped of Ukrainian citizenship.

As there was no legal opportunity for him to return to Ukraine, Saakashvili turned to his supporters who helped him cross the border in early September. Shortly after that, he applied for political asylum. According to the Ukrainian law, he should have received an official response within 24 hours, but the State Migration Service has remained silent until recently.

At the same time, the Ukrainian Justice Ministry has been assessing the possibility to extradite Saakashvili to Georgia, where several criminal charges were brought against him.