Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced on Friday that he had returned to Georgia, where he had been wanted in a search of allegations of abuse of office.
“I risked my life and freedom to return,” Saakashvili said in a video posted on Facebook, adding that he was in Batumi.
Saakashvili has returned to Georgia ahead of the October 2 municipal elections.
“I call on everyone to go to the polls and vote for the United National Movement,” Saakashvili said, referring to the largest opposition party he had founded.
However, the Georgian Ministry of Interior has told independent Formula TV that Saakashvili has not crossed the Georgian border.
Saakashvili, 53, denies the charges against him in Georgia, calling them politically motivated.
Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013 after the end of his second term. In recent years, he has lived in Ukraine, where he has held various high-ranking positions and currently chairs the Ukraine Reform Executive Committee.
Georgia plunged into political chaos last year after the parliamentary elections, in which the ruling party “Georgia’s Dream” won by a small majority. The opposition claims that the election results have been falsified.
In May, a cross-party agreement was reached between European Council President Charles Michel, in which the “Georgia Dream” promised to hold early parliamentary elections if the municipal elections received less than 43% of the vote on Saturday. However, in July, the ruling party left the agreement unilaterally, provoking sharp criticism from the European Union (EU) and the United States.
Saakashvili announced his intention to return to Georgia on Monday, announcing that he would arrive in Tbilisi on Saturday night.
Georgian Prime Minister Heraklion Garibashvili immediately announced that Saakashvili would be detained if he arrived in Georgia.
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