The supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili released him from an SBU minibus through a broken window, an LB.ua correspondent reported from the scene.
Upon the release, Saakashvili arranged an improvised meeting, calling the crowd to gather a new Maidan in order to overthrow President Petro Poroshenko.
On the morning of 5 December, prosecutors and an SBU task force came to detain Saakashvili on suspicion of cooperation with the fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko.
Saakashvili tried to escape detention by climbing onto the rooftop of a residential building on Kostyolns St. up the Independence Square.
LB.ua correspondent saw the politician threatened to jump off the roof and called for support until special forces climbed up the roof and detained him.
The SBU officers put Saakashvili into a van to be taken away for questioning but the crowd of supporters blocked the van.
Saakashvili is suspected of aiding a criminal group by receiving money from Serhiy Kurchenko, who is internationally sought, including for gross embezzlement.