Former President of Georgia, Saakashvili, has been sentenced to 9 years in prison on charges of corruption. The ex-leader, who has been held in custody, will remain in jail for another 5.5 years.

In Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, a verdict has been announced in the trial where former president Mikhail Saakashvili was tried for corruption. Judge Badri Kochlamazashvili stated that Saakashvili was sentenced to 9 years in prison for embezzling state budget funds. The judge also mentioned that Teimuraz Janashia, who was the Head of the Georgian State Security Special Service during Saakashvili’s presidency, was fined in the same case.

This means that the decision announced today marks the second jail term for Saakashvili, who was previously sentenced to 6 years in prison in 2021 for abuse of the presidential pardon power in a murder case and for reportedly ordering the assault of MP Valeri Gelashvili. According to the court’s decision, the prison term served by Saakashvili from October 1, 2021 until today will be considered as served. Therefore, Saakashvili will spend another 5.5 years in jail.

ARRESTED IN 2021
Returning to his country after 8 years on October 1, 2021, Saakashvili was detained and taken to a prison in Rustavi due to the in-absentia prison sentences against him. In 2007, the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office issued an arrest warrant for Saakashvili accusing him of dispersing an opposition rally, seizing the assets of the founder of the Imedi television channel, Badri Patarkatsishvili, corruption, abuse of power, and ordering the assault of a parliament member. Tbilisi City Court sentenced Saakashvili in absentia to 6 years in prison for abusing the presidential pardon power in a murder case and for ordering the assault of MP Valeri Gelashvili.

STARTED HUNGER STRIKES
After being detained on October 1, 2021 in Georgia, Saakashvili went on a hunger strike for 50 days, and later received treatment in the city of Gori. Saakashvili continued his hunger strike from February 21 to March 10, 2022. Officials from the Special Prison Service Administration in Georgia transferred Saakashvili from the Rustavi prison to the “Vivamedi” clinic in Tbilisi on May 12, 2022. Saakashvili has remained in custody at the clinic since then. Asserting his innocence, Saakashvili claims that he was arrested by the government and is a political prisoner.