Georgian court sentences ex-president Saakashvili to 9 more years in prison

Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili was sentenced on Wednesday to nine more years in prison after being found guilty of embezzlement, the Interpress news agency reported.

Saakashvili, president from 2004 to 2013, was jailed for six years for abuse of power after he returned to Georgia in 2021 following time abroad. He has spent much of that sentence in a prison hospital.

Georgian television showed scenes of commotion in the courtroom after the verdict was announced, with Saakashvili supporters calling the judge a “slave” of the present government.

A deeply polarising figure in Georgia today, Saakashvili rose to power on a tide of popular acclaim in the 2003 Rose Revolution.

In power, he reorientated Georgia towards the West and embarked on an ambitious public sector reform programme that delivered rapid improvements in the South Caucasus country of 3.7-million.

However, the latter part of his tenure was marked by authoritarianism, police brutality, and a disastrous 2008 war with Russia.

In 2012, his United National Movement party lost the election to a coalition headed by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire businessman who remains Georgia's de facto leader.

After leaving office, Saakashvili moved to Ukraine, where he briefly served as governor of the southern Odesa region.

In 2021, he returned to Georgia, despite having been convicted in absentia of abuse of power. He was arrested and jailed on arrival.

Reuters