The Tbilisi City Court in Georgia has 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 has issued a verdict for former President Mikheil Saakashvili, who is being tried in custody.

Saakashvili has been sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison on charges of crossing the country’s border without permission. Judge Mikhail Jinjoliya also announced that the former leader would be deprived of the right to work as a civil servant for 3 years. Saakashvili was sentenced in absentia in 2018 to 6 years in prison for abusing his power of pardon in a murder case during his presidency (2004-2013) and ordering the assault of MP Valeri Gelashvili.

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

HE LEFT THE COUNTRY IN 2013 Upon the end of his term in late 2013, Saakashvili left his country, returning to Georgia on October 1, 2021, and was immediately arrested and taken to prison in Rustavi due to the outstanding prison sentence against him. Following his arrest, Saakashvili went on a hunger strike for 50 days and received treatment in the city of Gori. After treatment, he repeated his hunger strike at the Rustavi prison from February 21 to March 10, 2022, before being transferred to the Vivamedi Clinic in Tbilisi on May 12, 2022. While undergoing treatment as a detainee at the same clinic, Saakashvili denies the allegations against him, claiming to be a political prisoner.