Mikheil Baturini, a bodyguard of Georgia's third president Mikheil Saakashvili and Ukrainian sailors detained on charges of illegally crossing the border, has been released.
As lawyer Beka Basilaia explains, the detainees were released a few days after the conviction without pardon and their request. According to the lawyer, this proves that the detainees were innocent.
As Basilaia noted, two detainees, Volodymyr Dyachenko and Yuri Khomich, were offered a pardon, but they refused because they pleaded not guilty.
As for the Georgian citizen, Mikheil Baturini, according to the lawyer, they were going to leave him in prison.
It should be noted that the detainees were released a few hours before the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Batumi International Conference.
"The Georgian state was asked about their release and, to our disgrace, only Yuri Khomich and Volodymyr Dyachenko were offered pardon, and Mikheil Baturini, a Georgian citizen, was to be imprisoned. Khomich and Dyachenko rejected the offer because they did not commit any crime, after which an unprecedented thing happened, all three were released without asking for pardon, about five days after the conviction," Basilaia said.
Ukrainian sailors and a firmer bodyguard of Georgia's third president Mikheil Saakashvili were arrested in November 2020 on charges of illegal group crossing of the border.
