Georgian ruling party leader accuses Ukraine of harbouring criminals

Georgian ruling party leader Irakli Kobakhidze has accused Ukraine of harbouring criminals.

"The Ukrainian authorities have been holding the criminal Saakashvili for many years and to this day they are holding up to ten known criminals who are convicted of committing crimes such as torture," Kommersant reports, citing ruling Georgian Dream party leader Irakli Kobakhidze.

He made the remarks in response to Kyiv's criticism over the situation around the former Georgian president, Ukraine citizen Mikheil Saakashvili.

The Ukrainian authorities are confident that Saakashvili, sentenced by a Tbilisi court to six years in prison on charges of official crimes, is being tortured in the elite Vivamedi clinic, where he has been treated since May last year.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy February 2 accused Tbilisi of trying to kill Saakashvili, who lost half of his weight during his imprisonment.

In response, Irakli Kobakhidze accused Ukraine of harbouring for many years not only Saakashvili himself but also the former Prosecutor General and Minister of Justice of Georgia Zurab Adeishvili, who holds the post of adviser to the Ukrainian prosecutor-general, as well as former Georgian Interior Minister Georgiy Lordkipanidze, who now holds the post of deputy head of Ukraine's counterintelligence.

Georgian officials have repeatedly accused them of torturing prisoners. However, in their homeland, they were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment on other official charges.