The officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs along with General Prosecutor’s Office, as a result of jointly held operative and search activities, detained the third President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi, who was wanted in connection with criminal cases of Sandro Girgvliani and Valeri Gelashvili, on the basis of three court instances.

Law enforcement agencies, based on the provided operative information, planned a special operation to detain Saakashvili. The operation was held in secret in order to avoid controversy within the society and possible escalation of events.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service had been working intensively, and after selecting a precise and effective time for detention of Mikheil Saakashvili, the law enforcers arrested him in one of the residential apartments in Tbilisi, located in Gldani - Nadzaladevi district.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has launched an investigation into the illegal crossing of the Georgian state border by Mikheil Saakashvili under Article 344 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. All relevant procedural and investigative measures are being actively carried out within the framework of the ongoing investigation.

Herewith, within the frames of the investigation, the owner of the residential apartment (DoB 1958) was also arrested by Tbilisi Police Department for concealing the crime. The investigation is in progress under Article 375, I part of the Criminal Code of Georgia.

Mikheil Saakashvili was found guilty by the decision of three court instances of Georgia and was transferred to the relevant penitentiary facility following the court decisions.