FORMER Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has challenged the authority of the current President of Ukraine, was detained on the roof of an apartment building in Kiev on Tuesday.
Saakashvili has drummed up support at rallies throughout Ukraine for an anti-corruption campaign that has targeted Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko after entering the country illegally in September.
Saakashvili had been residing in the building where he was detained, the Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement.
He faced up to five years in prison for illegally crossing the Polish border into Ukraine amid a mass brawl between his supporters and Ukrainian authorities.
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Saakashvili was Georgia’s president for nearly a decade until 2013, when an opposing party promoting closer ties with Russia took power.
He then supported Poroshenko’s ascent to Ukraine’s presidency and in 2015 was invited to serve as governor of the country’s prominent Odessa region on the Black Sea.
Saakashvili resigned from that post a year and a half later, accusing Poroshenko of perpetuating entrenched corruption.
In July, while Saakashvili was out of the country, Poroshenko stripped him of his Ukrainian citizenship.
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