Former Georgia President Saakashvili detained in Kiev

By Ali Cura

KIEV, Ukraine

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was briefly detained in Kiev on Tuesday before being released, local media reported.

The strange incident saw Saakashvili climb onto the roof of his apartment building in the Ukrainian capital when police raided his address.

The Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported that Saakashvili, who leads the Ukrainian New Forces Movement party, was arrested on the roof and led to a police van.

However, in a tense stand-off Saakashvili's supporters freed him from the van with little police resistance. He then gave a speech outside St. Alexander Cathedral.

"Let's go to the Rada [parliament] all together and demand the president's impeachment," Saakashvili told the crowd outside the cathedral.

"I am calling on everyone to go to Maidan and begin the process of ridding the country of [President Petro] Poroshenko," he said.

After serving as president of Georgia for 10 years, Saakashvili was appointed governor of Ukraine's southern Odessa region by Poroshenko in 2015 but resigned the following year.

He has become an outspoken critic of Poroshenko, who he has accused of corruption, and on Sunday urged supporters to rally in Kiev’s main square to demand Poroshenko’s impeachment.

The government has accused Saakashvili of being backed by an ally of deposed President Victor Yanukovich. General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko said he received $500,000 from businessman Serhiy Kurchenko.

"With this support, Mikheil Saakashvili and his acquaintances financed the protests to seize administration in Ukraine," Lutsenko told reporters.

Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship while in the U.S. earlier this year, rendering him stateless, but in September he crossed from Poland with the help of supporters.

His Georgian citizenship was removed when he took up Ukrainian nationality in 2015.