A court in Georgia has handed a further prison sentence to the jailed former president, Mikheil Saakashvili. Saakashvili was sentenced on Monday to four-and-a-half years behind bars for illegally crossing the border when returning to the country from exile in 2021, his lawyer said. He is already serving concurrent terms for embezzlement and abuse of power while in office, bringing his total sentence to more than 12 years. Saakashvili has always denied wrongdoing and called his latest sentence "illegal" and "unjust". Rights groups say his imprisonment is politically motivated.
Saakashvili opposes the governing Georgian Dream party, which favours closer ties with Russia. As president, he sought to forge closer relations with Western governments. In a video posted on X on Monday from the hospital where he is being held, Saakashvili said: "No matter what, I will fight to the end."
The former president was sentenced last week to nine years behind bars for embezzlement, running alongside the jail term he had already been serving. In 2018, he was tried in absentia and sentenced in two separate trials. Saakashvili was arrested in 2021 after making a surprise return to Georgia ahead of the country's local elections by smuggling himself into the country on a ferry from Ukraine. He called for mass anti-government demonstrations, but was quickly arrested by Georgian authorities.
The 57-year-old had led Georgia over two terms between 2004 and 2013. Since leaving the country, he had for the most part lived in Ukraine. He was granted Ukrainian citizenship in 2015, renouncing his Georgian citizenship when he became governor of Ukraine's Odesa region. His citizenship was revoked in 2017 before being restored again by President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019.
"This sentence is basically sending a message... to President Zelensky, for them to scare him to show what happens when you don't surrender your country... I did not surrender Georgia," Saakashvili said in his video address while wearing a black shirt with the words "I'm Ukrainian" emblazoned on it.
Zelensky, who appointed Saakashvili to oversee reforms in Ukraine, has demanded his transfer to Kyiv. He has previously accused Russia of "killing" Saakashvili "at the hands of the Georgian authorities".
The European Union has repeatedly called for Saakashvili's immediate release from prison, expressing concern over his deteriorating health. The Council of Europe rights watchdog has branded him a "political prisoner," while Amnesty International has called his treatment an "apparent political revenge".
