UN bans extradition of Georgia’s ex-military official Kardava from Ukraine to Georgia

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has taken Georgia’s former military official Megis Kardava under international protection which means that his planned extradition from Ukraine to Georgia has been banned, former civic activist Tea Tutberidze has written on her Facebook account and uploaded a relevant document. 

Kardava’s lawyer says that the UN’s decision ‘confirms he is politically persecuted.’

Earlier this week Ukraine gave a green light to Kardava’s extradition who has been charged with abuse of authority, torture, sexual abuse and illegal imprisonment in Georgia in absentia. 

Kardava, former head of Georgia’s military police under the United National Movement government, was arrested in Ukraine back in 2017 when he was trying to illegally enter the country from Romania. 

While in Ukraine he requested a political asylum which delayed his extradition to Georgia due to mandatory procedures. 

Last week, when he was on the verge of extradition, Kardava said that Georgian and Ukrainian officials agreed on his extradition because the extradition would boost the rating of the ruling Georgian Dream party in the forthcoming municipal race. 

Kardava has been on the run since 2012 when the Georgian Dream coalition defeated the UNM in the parliamentary elections. 

In 2014 Tbilisi City Court sentenced him to nine years in prison in absentia for torture.