Georgia's ex-President Saakashvili sentenced to 9 more years in prison on embezzlement charges

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been sentenced to an additional nine years in prison for an alleged large-scale embezzlement of state funds, the Tbilisi City Court ruled, as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Georgian service reported on March 12.

Judge Badri Kochlamazashvili found Saakashvili guilty of misappropriating 9 million lari (about $5.4 million at the time) from the state budget between May 2009 and February 2013 for personal expenses, including luxury hotels, cosmetic procedures, and designer clothing.

Teimuraz Janashia, former head of the Special Guard Service, was also convicted in the case and fined 300,000 Georgian lari ($108,000) for abuse of office. Both men denied the charges, calling the trial politically motivated.

Saakashvili, Georgia's president between 2004-2007 and 2008-2013, sought to take his country on a pro-Western path but lost elections to the Moscow-friendly Georgian Dream party a few years after the defeat in the Russia-Georgia war in 2008.

The politician was detained upon returning to Georgia in 2021 and is currently serving six years in prison on charges of ordering the beating of opposition lawmaker Valery Gelashvili in 2005. He was also given a three-year sentence for abuse of power charges for pardoning four police officers convicted of murder in 2008.

The former president, a longtime critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has accused oligrach Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream party, of orchestrating his prosecution on Moscow's orders.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on May 23 that there were no grounds to believe that Saakashvili's criminal proceedings were unfair.

In February 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Georgian government was "killing" Saakashvili after photos surfaced showing his deteriorating health and significant weight loss. Saakashvili holds Ukrainian citizenship and served as the governor of Odesa Oblast between 2015 and 2016.

The ruling follows mass protests in Tbilisi over the disputed October election results, which saw the Kremlin-friendly Georgian Dream party retain power.

Since the election, a number of Western countries have imposed sanctions on Georgia over the perceived democratic backsliding.

The political crisis deepened after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that Georgia's EU integration could be delayed until 2028.