Ruslan Chernolutski, the attorney of the opposition Movement of New Forces party leader, former Governor of Odessa Oblast (province) of Ukraine, and Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili, believes that the Tbilisi court verdict against this politician does not give Ukraine grounds to extradite him, according to NewsOne.

The Georgian capital Tbilisi City Court on Friday sentenced Saakashvili—in absentia—to three years in prison, in connection with the case into the murder of a bank employee in 2006. Subsequently, politicians in Kyiv started speaking about his possible extradition to Georgia.

“In our view, all the cases that are being investigated in Georgia against Saakashvili are solely political,” Chernolutski added, in particular. “They are political persecutions.”

Also, he stated that a person who was a Ukrainian citizen and lived in Ukraine in recent years cannot be extradited.

• Saakashvili says Georgia court sentence against him is unlawful