Ex‑Georgia president Saakashvili to serve 12.5 years
On Monday, former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for illegally crossing the border. This is another verdict in his recent legal troubles.
- Mikheil Saakashvili, former President of Georgia, received a 4.5-year prison sentence for illegally crossing the border, with the verdict handed down on Monday.
- Including previous sentences, Saakashvili will serve a total of 12.5 years in prison. He will not be eligible for release until April 2034.
- Last week, Saakashvili was sentenced to nine years in prison for embezzling budgetary funds.
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for illegally crossing the border. This is not his first conviction. Saakashvili, who served as Georgia's president from 2004 to 2013, has been incarcerated for abuse of power since the fall of 2021. Taking into account previous sentences, Saakashvili will spend a total of 12.5 years in prison - announced the judge.
"The earliest he can be released is in April 2034," wrote Ekho Kavkaza, the local branch of Radio Liberty.
Another sentence for the former Georgian president in recent days
Last week, Saakashvili was sentenced to nine years in prison for embezzling budgetary funds. The former president and his supporters claim that the cases against him are politically motivated.
Saakashvili ended up in prison in the fall of 2021 when he secretly arrived in Georgia from Ukraine aboard a ship. At that time, he had fugitive status and was sentenced in absentia. While incarcerated, Saakashvili held several hunger strikes and spent much of his sentence in a prison hospital.
