Mikheil Saakashvili Sentenced to 12.5 Years in Prison for Border Violation

The Tbilisi City Court found the third president of Georgia and former head of the Odesa Regional Administration Mikheil Saakashvili guilty of illegally crossing the borders of his homeland and sentenced him to four years and six months in prison.

This was reported by the Georgian newspaper Mtavari.

This term is in addition to the one the court has already sentenced the former president to, and thus Mikheil Saakashvili will spend 12 years and 6 months in a Georgian prison, i.e. until April 1, 2034.

Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia and former head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, was recently sentenced to nine years in his home country for embezzlement of budget funds.

The president is already serving a six-year sentence. He was convicted in the cases of pardoning the murderers of Sandro Girgvliani and the beating of MP Valerie Gelashvili.

Former Georgian President and former head of Odesa region Mikheil Saakashvili was detained by Georgian law enforcement in early October 2021.

In May 2020, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed the former head of the Odesa Regional Administration Mikheil Saakashvili as the head of the executive committee of the National Reform Council.

At the time, Georgian Ambassador to Ukraine Teimuraz Sharashenidze had previously stated that his country would likely perceive the appointment of former head of the Odesa Regional State Administration Mikheil Saakashvili as Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine as an unfriendly and unacceptable step from the point of view of strategic partnership. At the time, Saakashvili did not become deputy prime minister.

However, it later became known that after Saakashvili was appointed head of the reform executive committee, Georgia did recall its ambassador from Ukraine for consultations.

Кирило Бойко