The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has launched a criminal prosecution against Giorgi Lortkipanidze, the former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, for assisting former President Mikheil Saakashvili in illegally crossing the Georgian state border.

Prosecutor Levan Vepkhvadze stated about it at the briefing held at the General Prosecutor's Office.

"The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has launched a criminal prosecution against the former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Giorgi Lortkipanidze, a citizen of Ukraine, for assisting Mikheil Saakashvili in the illegal crossing of the Georgian state border.

During the investigation of the illegal crossing of the state border by convict Mikheil Saakashvili, the Ministry of Internal Affairs found that Giorgi Lortkipanidze knew that Mikheil Saakashvili was planning to cross the Georgian border illegally and in order to help him, he worked out and planned - when, by what means, by what route and in what way the illegal crossing of the state border of Georgia by the convicted Mikheil Saakashvili should have taken place.

Giorgi Lortkipanidze met with the accused E. Ts. in April 2021 and in exchange for certain assistance, persuaded him to transport Mikheil Saakashvili to the Georgian state border in his truck.

In mid-September 2021, Giorgi Lortkipanidze contacted again E. Ts. who this time was in Georgia and asked him to come to Ukraine.

On September 20, E. Ts. left for Ukraine in a SCANIA truck owned by him, where he loaded the car with dairy products and waited for a further instruction from Giorgi Lortkipanidze.

On September 26, wanted Mikheil Saakashvili, was brought in a car belonging to Giorgi Lortkipanidze, to the Chernomorsk port area and taken to a pre-arranged hiding place in the cabin of the accused E. Ts. truck, after which, they crossed the state border of Ukraine and put a truck on a ferry called "VILNIUS".

As it is already known to the public, on September 28, the ship entered the port of Poti from the port of Chernomorsk, from which on September 29, a truck trailer loaded with dairy products arrived and convicted Saakashvili was in the trailer.

In the territory of Poti port, near the so-called gez, Sh.Ts. and Z. Ts. were waiting for them in a "Mercedes" car owned by them, in which Mikheil Saakashvili and E.Ts. sat down. Mikheil Saakashvili and E.Ts. arrived at the house of the latter in the village of Tkviri, Abasha district.

On September 29, E.Ts. and Mikheil Saakashvili took a FORD minibus from the village of Tkviri in the Abasha district to Batumi, and returned from Batumi to Abasha by the same transport.

On the same day, Mikheil Saakashvili and E.Ts. got into a SCANIA trailer parked in the village of Tkviri and arrived in Tbilisi with G.N., where Mikheil Saakashvili was staying in the apartment of E.Ts. He was arrested on October 1 in the apartment.

Giorgi Lortkipanidze will be charged under the first part of Article 25,344 of the Criminal Code of Georgia.

The criminal case is under investigation.

We would like to remind the public that Giorgi Lortkipanidze is accused of abuse of office on May 26, 2011 in connection with the dispersal of protesters on Rustaveli Avenue, and the case is currently being tried in the Tbilisi City Court," the prosecutor's office said at a briefing.