Saakashvili sentenced for illegally crossing into Georgia, prison term extended until 2032

A Georgian court has handed down another verdict against former President Mikheil Saakashvili, sentencing him to 4.5 years in prison for illegally crossing into Georgia. The sentence extends his imprisonment until at least 2032.

Tbilisi City Court Judge Mikheil Jinjolia announced the verdict on Monday, finding the former president guilty of illegally crossing into Georgia in September 2021.

With his latest ruling, verdicts have now been delivered in four out of the five cases brought against Saakashvili — two of which were handed down in absentia as Saakashvili was in exile following his departure from Georgia in 2013, shortly after Georgian Dream came to power and his presidential term ended.

Saakashvili received his most severe sentence of nine years on 12 March when he was found guilty of embezzling state funds. The ruling absorbed a lesser sentence handed down to Saakashvili before his return.

Tbilisi Court sentences Saakashvili to 9 years in prison

Two other cases against Saakashvili are still under trial.

OC MediaMikheil Gvadzabia

On Monday, the judge ruled that he would serve the latest sentence mostly cumulative with his existing sentences, adding an additional 3.5 years to his total sentence.

Saakashvili’s last remaining case pertains to his government’s violent crackdown on opposition protests in November 2007, the police raid on an opposition TV station, and the seizure of property from an opposition MP’s family.

Saakashvili, who served as president between 2004–2013, denied the validity of the accusations, and said he considers all the cases initiated against him under Georgian Dream to be politically motivated.

In a video statement on Monday responding to the judge’s ruling, Saakashvili referred to the Georgian judiciary as a ‘factory of unfairness’ controlled by Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili and stated that he has been sentenced to ‘destruction in prison’.

In his address, Saakashvili claimed that he was forced to resort to illegally crossing into Georgia because the authorities left him with no legal way to return to the country

Petre Tsiskarishvili, a member of Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM) party dismissed the recent case as being ‘politically fabricated’, calling it a ‘legal absurdity’.

Saakashvili’s ongoing legal and political woes

Following Georgian Dream’s rise to power, Saakashvili left Georgia and spent several years in Ukraine, where he was granted citizenship. He had his Georgian citizenship revoked following his move to Ukraine, where he held various political positions.

In 2015, he was appointed as governor of Odesa Oblast by then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The following year he publicly accused Poroshenko of corruption and resigned. In 2017, while living in the US, Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship, leaving him stateless.

His Ukrainian citizenship was reinstated by current President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, who appointed Saakashvili as head of the Executive Reforms Committee in 2020.

Throughout his time in Ukraine, he remained actively involved in Georgian politics and frequently announced his intention to return to the country, which he ultimately did before the local elections in October 2021.

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According to the investigation, the former president illegally returned to Georgia from Ukraine in late September aboard a truck carrying dairy products. He was arrested shortly after.

At the time of his arrival, four different criminal cases had been already initiated against Saakashvili, two of which had already resulted in a verdict in absentia.

One of the cases involved the alleged ordering of an attack on businessperson and opposition MP Valeri Gelashvili in 2005, for which Saakashvili was sentenced to six years in 2018.

In the same year, he was sentenced on charges of abuse of official power related to the murder of citizen Sandro Girgvliani.

Since his arrest in October 2021, Saakashvili has several times gone on hunger strike leading to his transfer to a hospital in Tbilisi, where he has been serving his sentence.

Saakashvili’s imprisonment and his health condition have been a subject of political discussion both in Georgia and abroad. Georgian Dream also has used Saakashvili’s tenure as an official in Ukraine as a rhetorical weapon against Kyiv.

Following Saakashvili’s arrest in Georgia, Zelenskyi personally demanded that Tbilisi hand him over to Kyiv. In July 2023, he ordered the Georgian Ambassador to Ukraine to return to Georgia to consult with his government over the demand, which the ruling party considered an insult.

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Ukraine has summoned the Georgian Ambassador to the country and ordered him to return to Georgia to consult with his government over Ukraine’s demand to hand over Mikheil Saakashvili. On Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky again called on the Georgian authorities to hand over the imprisoned thir…

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In 2024, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Georgia, with one of its articles demanding Saakashvili’s release on ‘humanitarian grounds and to allow him to receive proper medical treatment abroad’.

In May 2024, the European Court of Human Rights rejected Saakashvili’s requests regarding two verdicts issued against him, ruling that there was no reason to doubt the fairness of the criminal charges.

While in prison, Saakashvili has continued his involvement in Georgian politics, including commenting on the 2022–2023 conflict within the UNM.

The conflict ended with the party’s former chair, Nika Melia, leaving the party along with his allies. Melia cited the ‘informal influence’ of officials from Saakasvhili’s time on the party as one of the reasons behind the conflict.

Ahead of the 2024 elections, Saakashvili lobbied for the idea of uniting the opposition against Georgian Dream.

Explainer | The five cases against former President Mikheil Saakashvili

Georgia’s imprisoned former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, has returned to the headlines — this time due to new verdicts announced against him.

OC MediaMikheil Gvadzabia