Former head of the military police department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia Megis Kardava has been detained in Ukraine and is awaiting extradition to Georgia. This was reported today by Georgian media with reference to Kardava’s wife, who posted her husband’s address on her Facebook page, writes DIP.

A high-ranking official during Mikheil Saakashvili’s presidency says that the consideration of his extradition to Georgia, which began in 2017, was “accelerated by the decision of the relevant court of Ukraine”. Kardava himself considers it “an act of political agreement between the parties”. He alleges that Kyiv “informally exchanged” him for two Ukrainian sailors convicted in Batumi of violating state borders.

“I appeal to the People’s Defender, as well as to international organizations, to protect my interests and security, so as not to allow the Russian occupation regime to exert physical and psychological pressure on me through political persecution on fabricated cases in order to obtain false testimony from me”, - it is said in the appeal.

Kardava left Georgia in 2012 after a change of government and has been wanted by Interpol since March 2013. At home, he is accused of committing a number of crimes. These include torture, sexual violence, embezzlement and embezzlement.

At the request of the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office, the Security Service of Ukraine detained Kardava on November 1, 2017. He was placed in extradition detention for a maximum of one year. However, Kardava soon applied for asylum in Ukraine. Until the final decision on extradition, his sentence was replaced by house arrest.