FILE - In this May 29, 2019, record photo, Georgia's erstwhile President Mikheil Saakashvili greets supporters upon accomplishment astatine Boryspil Airport, extracurricular Kyiv, Ukraine. Georgia Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, that Saakashvili was been arrested. The announcement came astir 18 hours aft Saakashvili, who was convicted successful absentia and has lived successful Ukraine successful caller years, posted connected Facebook that helium had returned to the country. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

FILE - In this May 29, 2019, record photo, Georgia's erstwhile President Mikheil Saakashvili greets supporters upon accomplishment astatine Boryspil Airport, extracurricular Kyiv, Ukraine. Georgia Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, that Saakashvili was been arrested. The announcement came astir 18 hours aft Saakashvili, who was convicted successful absentia and has lived successful Ukraine successful caller years, posted connected Facebook that helium had returned to the country. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File) (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

TBILISI – Former President Mikheil Saakashvili was arrested aft returning to Georgia, the authorities said Friday, a determination that came arsenic the ex-leader sought to rally supporters up of nationalist municipal elections seen arsenic captious for the country's governmental makeup.

The announcement by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili came astir 18 hours aft Saakashvili, who was convicted successful absentia connected maltreatment of powerfulness charges and has lived successful Ukraine successful caller years, posted connected Facebook that helium was backmost successful the country.

Saakashvili was president successful 2004-13 and was renowned for his energetic efforts against Georgia’s endemic corruption, but Georgians became progressively uneasy with what they saw arsenic his authoritarian inclinations and his sometimes-mercurial behavior.

He had travel to powerfulness successful the Rose Revolution demonstrations that drove the erstwhile president, erstwhile Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, to resign.

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Saakashvilii near the state soon aft the 2013 election, successful which helium could not run, was won by the campaigner from the absorption Georgian Dream party.

In 2018, Georgian courts convicted and sentenced him to up to six years successful prison.

Saakashvili moved to Ukraine, wherever helium became politician of the corruption-plagued Odesa region, and obtained Ukrainian citizenship, which nullified his Georgian citizenship. However, helium fell retired with then-President Petro Poroshenko, resigned his station and was stripped of Ukrainian citizenship.

He forced his mode backmost into Ukraine successful 2017, but was yet deported to Poland. After Poroshenko's successor Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to power, Saakashvili returned to Ukraine and was named to a apical corruption-fighting position.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.