UPDATE 2 - Former Georgian president detained after return to country

ADDS SAAKASHVILI'S HUNGER STRIKE

By Davit Kachkachishvili

TBILISI, Georgia (AA) - Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was detained following his return to the country after eight years, the country's prime minister announced on Friday.

Irakli Garibashvili said in a press conference that Saakashvili, who had an arrest warrant to his name, was detained by security forces.

Noting that the Interior Ministry had previously received information on Saakashvili's plans to come to Georgia from Ukraine, Garibashvili said the process was "completely under control," adding that Saakashvili was transferred to a penitentiary.

The Interior Ministry shared footage of Saakashvili's imprisonment in the southeastern city of Rustavi, 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) from Tbilisi.

Saakashvili went on a hunger strike in the prison. Visiting Saakashvili in the 12th prison in Rustavi, Georgian Ombudsman Nino Lomcaria said the former president's health is good.

Lomcaria noted that Saakashvili wanted to meet the Consul General of Ukraine in Tbilisi as he is a citizen of Ukraine. He also added that Saakashvili was detained in a house in Tbilisi.

Separately, the prosecutor's office said in a statement that Saakashvili had been sentenced to six years in absentia.

Saakashvili, who spent the last eight years abroad due to the warrant, announced on Facebook earlier on Friday that he had returned to the city of Batumi on Georgia's Black Sea coast.

His return came a day before local elections are to be held in the country and he urged the public to go to the polls and "protect" their votes by gathering in the center of the capital Tbilisi on Sunday.

Saakashvili went to the US in 2013 after his presidential term expired, with then-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko granting him Ukrainian citizenship in May 2015. Saakashvili was appointed Governor of Odessa, but resigned from this post in 2016.

He has been the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Reform of Ukraine since 2020.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar