KIEV, Ukraine — Opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili was deported from Ukraine to Poland on Monday after being detained by armed, masked men at a restaurant in Kiev and rushed to the airport, Ukrainian officials and his supporters said.

Ukraine's border guard agency had to use force to counter Saakashvili's supporters at the Kiev airport, Oleh Slobodyan, a spokesman for the agency, said on Facebook.

Saakashvili was stripped of Ukrainian citizenship while he was abroad last year, but he forced his way back into the country from Poland in September. Since then, he has led repeated protests against Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the official corruption that still plagues the country.

Poland's border guards said on the agency's website that Saakashvili was admitted to Polish territory Monday at the request of Ukrainian immigration authorities.

He was permitted into Poland as the spouse of a European Union citizen, the Polish guards said. Saakashvili's wife is Dutch, and both the Netherlands and Poland are EU nations.

Upon his arrival in Poland, Saakashvili said his deportation showed Poroshenko's weakness. He denounced the Ukrainian president as a "sneaky speculator who wants to destroy Ukraine" in a Facebook statement.

Saakashvili, Georgia's president from 2004-13, came to Ukraine after his presidency ended as an ally of Poroshenko, who appointed him governor of the southern Odessa region. He resigned from that post in 2016 and harshly criticized Poroshenko for failing to stem corruption.

"I was very nicely met by Polish side, and Ukrainian side was absolutely outrageous, total lawlessness — it was a kidnapping, illegal one. But Poles are very good and I am very grateful," Saakashvili told Polish Radio RMF FM as he left Warsaw Airport. </s> Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-14 23:19:08|Editor: yan

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THE HAGUE, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was deported from Ukraine to Poland on Monday, arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands on Wednesday.

His lawyer Oscar Hammerstein told national broadcaster NOS that Saakashvili was currently in Rotterdam to arrange his settlement in the Netherlands, which was approved by the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service. He has already received a temporary residence permit.

Based on the family reunification rule, Saakashvili can relocate to the Netherlands because he has a Dutch wife.

"It is, like always, good to be here," Saakashvili said to the NOS. "I am here in the Netherlands because of what happened in Ukraine. We will see what happens."

The 50-year-old Saakashvili was president of Georgia from 2004 until 2013. After his political career in Georgia, he moved to Ukraine as an ally of current Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. He acquired Ukrainian citizenship in May 2015, losing his Georgian passport as a result, and was appointed governor of the southern Odessa region.

Saakashvili soon became an opponent of Poroshenko, blaming the government for corruption and in July 2017 Saakashvili's Ukrainian citizenship was revoked. He is now a stateless person.

Saakashvili was detained by Ukrainian border guards on Monday in Kiev and deported to Poland by plane. According to Ukraine, Saakashvili was on Ukrainian territory illegally and therefore had to return to the country from which he had arrived.

The deportation on Monday came shortly after a Kiev court rejected his appeal against extradition to Georgia, where he was convicted for abuse of power during his presidential term, which carries a three-year prison sentence. </s> KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili has been deported to Poland, a spokesman for Ukraine’s border service said on Monday.

“This person was on Ukrainian territory illegally and therefore, in compliance with all legal procedures, he was returned to the country from where he arrived,” spokesman Oleh Slobodyan said in a post on Facebook. </s> WARSAW, Poland — Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili says he will continue to rally people against the nation's authorities from abroad, following his deportation from the country.

Saakashvili was deported from Ukraine to Poland on Monday after being detained by armed, masked men at a restaurant in Kiev and rushed to the airport.

At a news conference in Warsaw Tuesday he described the deportation as having taken place by force and against international laws.

He vowed to continue rallying Ukrainians against the nation's authorities, saying they are corrupt. He said he will find a way to return to Ukraine, insisting it is his country.

Saakashvili was Georgia's president from 2004-13, and later was given a high position in Ukraine by then-ally President Petro Poroshenko. He has since criticized Poroshenko for failing to stem corruption. </s> Ukrainian opposition leader and ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili was deported to Poland on Monday, the Ukrainian border service said, after he was detained in a Kiev restaurant by law enforcement agents in camouflage, Reuters reported.

Poland’s border service confirmed that he had arrived and that Warsaw had agreed to let him enter.

“This person was on Ukrainian territory illegally and therefore, in compliance with all legal procedures, he was returned to the country from where he arrived,” border service spokesman Oleh Slobodyan said in a post on Facebook.

“This is not a president and not a man. This is a lowlife crook who wants to wreck Ukraine. All this shows how weak they are. We will of necessity defeat them.” </s> WARSAW (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili has landed in Poland, a spokeswoman at Polish border control said on Monday.

Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia, was deported to Poland from Ukraine earlier on Monday. </s> WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili said Tuesday he would continue rallying people against the nation's authorities from abroad, following his deportation.

At a news conference in Warsaw, Saakashvili described his detention in Kiev by armed, masked men and immediate ejection to neighboring Poland as a violation of international laws.

He vowed to continue encouraging Ukrainians to stand up to authorities he considers "corrupt elites."

"We will have millions of people protesting in the streets of Ukraine," Saakashvili, who was Georgia's president before he took a government position in Ukraine, said.

Saakashvili was deported to Poland because he entered Ukraine from the neighboring country last year. Speaking in Ukrainian and English, he said he would find a way to return to Ukraine, insisting it is his country.

Saakashvili and a small crowd of supporters shoved their way through a line of guards from Poland into Ukraine in September.

"Warsaw-Kiev, Kiev-Warsaw, I have traveled that route many times and will do it again," Saakashvili said, without offering specifics.

He said he planned to visit family in the Netherlands and to seek support for his political activity by meeting European leaders and lawmakers.

Saakashvili was Georgia's president from 2004 to 2013, and later was given a governorship in Ukraine by then-ally President Petro Poroshenko. He has since criticized Poroshenko for failing to stem corruption and led anti-government protests. </s> Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili Tuesday urged European leaders to slap sanctions on President Petro Poroshenko, whom he accused of violating his human rights by expelling him from the country three months ago.

Saakashvili, 50, was thrown out of Ukraine in mid-February when masked men abducted him from a downtown Kiev restaurant and swiftly deported him to Poland. He is currently living in the Netherlands with his Dutch wife and two sons.

Now his lawyers say Kiev trampled on the rights of the maverick politician, but any lawsuit — for instance at the Luxembourg-based European Court for Human Rights — could take years to pursue.

Instead, Saakashvili called upon European leaders to slap sanctions on Poroshenko and his political allies to force the Ukranian president to allow him back into the country.

Ukraine is due to hold parliamentary and presidential polls next year which Saakashvili has vowed to contest.

“I will return to the Ukraine, but in the meantime I’ll keep busy to ensure that special sanctions are being put into effect against Poroshenko,” Saakashvili told reporters at his first press conference since arriving in the Netherlands in February.

His British lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said his client decided to call on European leaders to impose sanctions against Poroshenko because a possible lawsuit “would still take years.”

“The challenge, I think, is now to the states of Europe… to take diplomatic action… that must be used as a lever to actually influence Ukraine and its president to do the right thing,” Robertson said.

“To allow Mr Saakashvili back, to allow him to lead his political party in the elections next year,” Robertson said.

A one-time regional governor in Ukraine, Saakashvili dramatically fell out with Poroshenko over allegations that Kiev was failing to fight endemic corruption.

The ugly dispute saw Saakashvili stripped of his Ukrainian passport, effectively rendering him stateless. He has now received a Dutch ID card which allows him to live and work in the European Union.

Kiev in turn accuses Saakashvili of trying to stage a coup sponsored by allies of former Kremlin-backed Ukranian president Viktor Yanukovych — a charge he strongly denies.

Saakashvili was detained at the Kiev restaurant and flown back to Poland, after slipping into Ukraine through a blockade on the Polish-Ukrainian border in September 2017.

The former Georgian president from 2004-2013 is also wanted by Tbilisi on charges of abuse of power — which he strenuously denies. A Georgian court sentenced him to three years in prison in absentia in January. </s> Mikheil Saakashvili, a Ukrainian opposition leader and a former president of Georgia, says he has been kidnapped in Kiev and sent to Poland. Security footage showed Saakashvili being dragged from a restaurant by men in military uniforms.

It later emerged this was a government operation to deport him.

Saakashvili was a marked man in Ukraine for rallying against President Petro Poroshenko.
Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of the opposition Movement of New Forces party, who was deported from Ukraine to Poland, relocates to the Netherlands.