Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was sentenced to 4.6 years in prison for illegally crossing the Georgian border in October 2021.
The decision was made by Judge Miheil Ginjolia, Radio Liberty reports.
The TV channel mtavari writes that the ex-president wanted to be present at the court session today and make his last speech, but he was not allowed. The lawyers do not know the reasons for the refusal. Mikheil Saakashvili also did not participate in the trial remotely from the clinic.
Mikheil Saakashvili returned to Georgia on October 1, 2021. According to the investigation, he secretly crossed the border, hiding in a cargo trailer. The ex-president was arrested the same day. The prosecutorʼs office of then-Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili initiated criminal proceedings against him under Article 344 of the Criminal Code, which concerns illegal crossing of the state border.
Charges were brought against four other defendants in the case — Elgudja Tsomaya, Zurab and Shalva Tsotsoriya, and Giorgi Narimanidze. In particular, Elgudja Tsomaya is accused of aiding Saakashviliʼs illegal border crossing and concealing the crime, while Zurab and Shalva Tsotsoriya, as well as Giorgi Narimanidze, are accused of concealing the crime. The case is being investigated separately, and they have been released on bail.
On the eve of the verdict in this case, Saakashvili was sentenced to 9 years in prison for embezzlement of public funds. Georgian media note that his total prison term now reaches 12.6 years. The term of imprisonment will be calculated from the date of Saakashviliʼs arrest — that is, from October 1, 2021. Mikheil Saakashvili will be released on April 1, 2034 under these sentences. But another case is currently being conducted against him — on charges of abuse of power during the dispersal of rallies on November 7, 2007.
- Mikheil Saakashvili was the President of Georgia from 2004 to 2013. He renounced his Georgian citizenship in 2013 and became a citizen of Ukraine. In 2021, he returned to Georgia, where he was arrested, because by that time Saakashvili had been convicted in absentia. The ex-president is currently in prison. In July 2023, the Verkhovna Rada asked the President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili to pardon Mikheil Saakashvili.
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