{"id":21074,"date":"2021-10-01T16:30:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T11:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pni.net.pk\/en\/?p=21074"},"modified":"2021-10-01T16:28:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T11:28:05","slug":"exiled-ex-president-saakashvili-says-back-in-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pni.net.pk\/en\/latest-world-news\/exiled-ex-president-saakashvili-says-back-in-georgia\/","title":{"rendered":"Exiled ex-president Saakashvili says back in Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tbilisi, Oct 1 (AFP\/APP):Ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili said Friday he had returned from exile to Georgia, despite a looming arrest and ahead of local elections in the Caucasus country gripped by a protracted political crisis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I risked my life and freedom to be back,&#8221; Saakashvili said in a video on Facebook adding that he was in Georgia&#8217;s western city of Batumi on the Black Sea coast.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I call on everyone to go to the elections and vote for the United National Movement,&#8221; he said, referring to Georgia&#8217;s main opposition party that he had founded.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Friday he wrote on Facebook: &#8220;Good morning. I am back in Georgia after eight years.&#8221;<br \/>\nGeorgia&#8217;s interior ministry, however, told the independent Formula TV that &#8220;Saakashvili did not cross Georgia&#8217;s state border&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Saakashvili&#8217;s return from Ukraine &#8212; where he heads a government agency steering reforms &#8212; has raised the stakes ahead of Saturday&#8217;s municipal elections seen as a key test for the increasingly unpopular ruling party.<\/p>\n<p>The 53-year-old is wanted by Georgian authorities on abuse of office<br \/>\ncharges, which he says are politically motivated.<br \/>\nSaakashvili left Georgia in 2013 when his second and last term as president ended.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, he announced his planned return from Ukraine, saying he will be flying to Georgia&#8217;s capital Tbilisi on Saturday evening.<br \/>\nGeorgia&#8217;s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said at the time that &#8220;if Saakashvili sets foot on Georgian soil, he will be immediately arrested and brought to prison.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tbilisi, Oct 1 (AFP\/APP):Ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili said Friday he had returned from exile to Georgia, despite a looming arrest and ahead of local elections in the Caucasus country gripped by a protracted political crisis. &#8220;I risked my life and freedom to be back,&#8221; Saakashvili said [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":21061,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12221],"class_list":["post-21074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-world-news","tag-exiled-ex-president-saakashvili-says-back-in-georgia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Exiled ex-president Saakashvili says back in 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