At the moment, the third President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, is addressing the court:
"I want to explain why I am in this hall today and why I am in Georgia. You know that I am the Executive Chairman of the Council of the largest country in Europe, which meets every month and prepares the necessary reforms for Ukraine. I held a very high position in Ukraine and was in the first place following the research conducted by Ipsos when it came to the post of the Prime Minister. I have twice refused the post of Prime Minister during the Poroshenko ruling.
I have not been anywhere as well as I have been in Ukraine. I put all this aside and came to Georgia, where I knew for sure that I could be killed on the road, as Zviad Gamsakhurdia, or put in prison, from where my chances of being released alive are minimal.
I am here because even though I really love Ukraine, I love Georgia madly, a place where I grew up in a very loving family.
I dreamed of Georgia every night. Batumi, Abkhazia, My yard, stadium. The feeling that I am losing all this and Georgians are losing it was becoming more and more unbearable.
In 2008, when the Russians told me through the French, Sarkozy, and the Americans that they were coming to Tbilisi the next morning, my family and I had to leave the country. They bombed Kopitnari Airport, which we then rebuilt, and it is completely different now; they bombed the area around Batumi Airport, they also bombed Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing; the only thing they did not bomb was Tbilisi International Airport. The only reason was that they thought Saakashvili would leave the country.
It took me 2-3 minutes to make a decision," Saakashvili said.
The state indictment accuses Mikheil Saakashvili of mass dispersal of protesters on November 7, 2007, intrusion into Imedi TV and criminal seizure of Badri Patarkatsishvili's property.
He is charged under the third part of Article 333 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which stipulates abuse of official authority, which has led to a substantial violation of the rights of a natural or legal person, society, or the state. The mentioned sentence envisages imprisonment for a term of 5 to 8 years.
