A protester demands the release of jailed former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili outside parliament in Tbilisi, Georgia, 9 April 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE / ZURAB KURTSIKIDZE
A court in the Georgian capital Tbilisi has sentenced the country’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili to 4.5 years in prison for illegally entering Georgia when he secretly returned from exile in 2021, independent broadcaster Mtavari TV reported on Monday.
Saakashvili, who went into exile fearing persecution at the hands of the Georgian Dream party, his main political rivals who have held power in the country since 2012, had himself smuggled into the country by ferry in a lorry transporting dairy products from Ukraine, according to prosecutors. He was arrested three days later in Tbilisi.
On Wednesday, a Tbilisi court sentenced Saakashvili to nine years in prison after finding him guilty of embezzling public funds while he was in office, in a case that many believe to be politically motivated. According to investigators, during Saakashvili’s second term as president between 2009 and 2013, the sum of 9 million GEL (almost €3 million) was misappropriated from the state budget at his behest.
The judge took into account the totality of the crimes committed and added a term to the punishment already imposed, leaving Saakashvili with a combined sentence of 12 years and six months in prison.
Saakashvili had already been serving a six-year sentence on charges of illegally pardoning four police officers in 2008 and for ordering the beating of opposition MP Valeri Gelashvili in 2005.
One of the leaders of Georgia’s Rose Revolution in 2003, which led to the overthrow of former president Eduard Shevardnadze, Saakashvili served two terms as president from 2004-2013, but went into exile following Georgian Dream’s rise to power. However, since his imprisonment in 2021, human rights organisations have accused the Georgian authorities of seriously endangering his health by denying him adequate medical care.
