Court to sentence ex-Georgian President Saakashvili on March 17

Tbilisi City Court will pass a sentence on March 17 on former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in the case of illegal border crossing, judge Mikhail Jinjolia said.

“The resolution part will be announced on Monday, March 17, at 11.00 (10.00 Moscow time),” the judge said at a March 14 hearing.

Saakashvili was detained in Georgia on October 1, 2021 after he returned from Ukraine. He returned from there by ferry, hiding in a truck that was transporting dairy products. Law enforcers later detained him in Tbilisi.

Saakashvili is on trial in five criminal cases, two of which sentenced the ex-president to six years in prison in absentia and nine years in the case of public embezzlement. On March 12, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced Saakashvili to nine years in prison in the case of embezzlement of state funds. After the new sentence Saakashvili will have to serve until 2030.

At the moment the Tbilisi City Court is considering two cases against him - on dispersing the protest on November 7, 2007 and on illegal border crossing. He faces three to five years in prison for the latter.

Reprinted from https://ria.ru/