Member of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada demands that Saakashvili be stripped of parental rights
Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada deputy Yelizaveta Yasko has filed a lawsuit against former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
She is demanding that he be stripped of parental rights to their shared daughter Jasmine and that he be obliged to pay child support until the child comes of age.
As the Ukrainian outlet Obozrevatel reports, the relevant information is contained in the court registry and on the website of Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi District Court.
For his part, Saakashvili, who is serving a sentence in a Georgian prison, stated on the social network X that he provides financial assistance to his daughter. According to him, Jasmine was born after he was already imprisoned.
The ex-president also reported that his mother visited her granddaughter in Kyiv and several European cities, provides her with financial support every month, and in 2022 gave her an apartment in Kyiv.
Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013, after which criminal cases were opened against him. In 2015 he received Ukrainian citizenship, and in 2015–2016 he held the post of governor of the Odesa region. Later he was appointed head of the National Reform Council.
In October 2021, Saakashvili secretly returned to Georgia, where he was detained. He was subsequently sentenced to imprisonment on charges of embezzling state funds, organizing the beating of a deputy, abuse of office, and illegally crossing the border.
In all, Saakashvili has four children: two sons from his former wife, Dutch citizen Sandra Roelofs, a daughter from Georgian singer Sopho Nizharadze, and a daughter from Yelizaveta Yasko.
