Mikheil Saakashvili Sentenced to 9 Years for Embezzling ₴9M in Georgia

Former Georgian President and former head of the Odesa Regional State Administration Mikheil Saakashvili was sentenced to another nine years in his homeland for embezzlement of budget funds.

This was reported by Echo of the Caucasus.

The prosecutor's office claimed that from May 1, 2009 to February 25, 2013, on behalf of Mikheil Saakashvili and his organization, 9 million gryvnias were misappropriated from the state budget for his personal purposes, which in those years amounted to about 5.4 million dollars.

In addition, the court found the former head of the Special Security Service, Teimuraz Janashia, guilty of abuse of office and fined him 300,000 GEL.

The former president is currently 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 the 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