The Georgian chief prosecutor's office has put former President Mikheil Saakashvili on its wanted list for alleged criminal acts during his presidency.
In an interview with Georgian television station Rustavi2 conducted in New York and aired on Friday, Saakashvili responded that the move is aimed at preventing him from going back to Georgia for political activities.
Saakashvili had been summoned twice by the chief prosecutor's office but refused to go back to the country. He was later charged with exceeding authority while cracking down democratic demonstrators in November 2007 and seizing private properties from an opposition billionaire around the same period.
The former president was also charged with mis-spending more than 8 million Georgian laris (4.57 million U.S. dollars) of public budgetary funds.
Earlier this month, a Georgian court ordered a pre-trial detention of Saakashvili in absentia. The Georgian Interior Ministry has also filed a decree stating that he will be detained as soon as he enters the South Caucasus country.
Saakashvili left Georgia soon after he stepped down from presidency on Nov. 17, 2013, and has since stayed in the United States. Enditem