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World

The Latest: Ukrainian campaigner breaks free from arrest

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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MOSCOW – The Latest on the arrest of Mikheil Saakashvili in Kiev (all times local):

1:55 p.m.

The former president of Georgia who has emerged as an anti-corruption campaigner in Ukraine has broken free from custody, several hours after he was detained.

Ukrainian authorities detained Mikheil Saakashvili at his home on Tuesday morning but hundreds of protesters stopped the police van with Saakashvili inside from driving away.

More than three hours after the politician was detained, riot police were sent in to help but they failed to get the van moving.

Saakashavili then somehow managed to break free and addressed the crowd, calling for protests against President Petro Poroshenko.

Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013 after serving as president for nearly a decade, and later was appointed governor of Ukraine's Odessa region. But he quit in 2016, complaining that his efforts to root out corruption suffered official obstruction.

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10:45 a.m.

Ukrainian police have detained the former president of Georgia who has emerged as an anti-corruption campaigner in his new country.

Police went to detain Mikheil Saakashvili Tuesday morning. He went up on the roof of his home in Kiev to protest, attracting a crowd of supporters downstairs. Footage from the scene showed Saakashvili being taken away while several hundred protesters were blocking the road.

Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013 after serving as president for nearly a decade, and later was appointed governor of Ukraine's Odessa region. But he quit in 2016, complaining that his efforts to root out corruption suffered official obstruction.

His Ukrainian citizenship was revoked this year while he was out of the country, but he returned in September after supporters broke through a police line at the Polish border.