The Tbilisi City Court in Georgia sentenced former President Saakashvili to 4 years and 6 months in prison for illegally crossing the country’s border.

In Georgia, the Tbilisi City Court issued a verdict for former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who was being tried while in detention.

Saakashvili was convicted and sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison for crossing the border without permission. Judge Mikhail Jinjoliya also announced that the former leader would be deprived of the right to work as a state official for a period of 3 years. Saakashvili had previously been sentenced in absentia to 6 years in prison in 2018 for abusing his amnesty powers in a murder case and for ordering the beating of MP Valery Gelashvili during his presidency (2004-2013).

Additionally, he had been sentenced to 9 years in prison in a corruption trial for embezzling state budget funds on March 12th.

LEFT THE COUNTRY IN 2013 After leaving the country at the end of 2013 when his term ended, Saakashvili returned to Georgia on October 1, 2021, and was immediately detained and taken to a prison in Rustavi due to the in absentia prison sentence against him. Following his arrest, Saakashvili went on a 50-day hunger strike and received medical treatment in Gori. After treatment, he was transferred to Vivamedi Clinic in Tbilisi on May 12, 2022, after repeating a hunger strike at the Rustavi prison between February 21 and March 10, 2022. While undergoing treatment as an inmate at the same clinic, Saakashvili denies the charges against him, claiming he is a political prisoner.