Returning home, Georgian ex-leader arrested after call for election protest

FILE PHOTO: Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's former President and newly appointed head of the executive committee of Ukraine's National Reform Council, speaks during an interview with Reuters at his house in the village of Lisnyky outside Kiev, Ukraine May 8, 2020. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

TBILISI (Reuters) -Georgian police on Friday arrested ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili in Georgia after the opposition politician returned to the country despite facing imprisonment and called for post-election street protests this weekend.

Saakashvili, who had been living in Ukraine and was sentenced in absentia in Georgia in 2018, announced this week he would fly home for Saturday's local elections in order to help "save the country".