Georgia Ex-President Saakashvili Gets New 4.5-Year Sentence

• Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili receives an additional 4.5-year prison sentence for illegal border crossing in 2021.
• Saakashvili, who opposes the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party, calls the charges politically motivated and maintains his innocence.
• Ukraine and international rights groups demand his release, citing concerns over his health and claims of political persecution.

A Georgian court has imposed an additional prison sentence on jailed former president Mikheil Saakashvili, extending his time behind bars.

On Monday, Saakashvili was sentenced to four-and-a-half years for illegally crossing the border in 2021, when he secretly returned to Georgia from exile, according to his lawyer.

The former leader is already serving concurrent sentences for embezzlement and abuse of power during his time in office, bringing his total prison term to over 12 years. Saakashvili has consistently denied any wrongdoing, denouncing the latest verdict as “illegal” and “unjust.” Rights groups and Western allies have criticized his imprisonment as politically motivated.

Saakashvili has been a vocal opponent of the ruling Georgian Dream party, which advocates for closer ties with Russia. During his presidency from 2004 to 2013, he pushed for stronger relations with Western nations.

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In a video message shared on X from the hospital where he is being held, Saakashvili declared: “No matter what, I will fight to the end.” He appeared wearing a black shirt emblazoned with the words “I’m Ukrainian.”

Last week, the 57-year-old was sentenced to nine years for embezzlement in a ruling that runs concurrently with his existing prison term. In 2018, Saakashvili was convicted in absentia in two separate trials.

He was arrested in 2021 after re-entering Georgia ahead of local elections, reportedly smuggling himself into the country via a ferry from Ukraine. Upon arrival, he urged mass protests against the government but was swiftly detained by Georgian authorities.

Since leaving Georgia in 2013, Saakashvili had largely lived in Ukraine, where he was granted citizenship in 2015 and appointed governor of the Odesa region. His citizenship was revoked in 2017 and later reinstated by President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019.

In his video address, Saakashvili claimed his sentencing was intended as a warning to Zelensky: “This 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.”

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Zelensky, who tasked Saakashvili with overseeing reforms in Ukraine, has repeatedly called for his transfer to Kyiv. He has accused Russia of “killing” Saakashvili “at the hands of the Georgian authorities.”

International concern over Saakashvili’s health and imprisonment continues to mount. The European Union has called for his immediate release, while the Council of Europe has labeled him a “political prisoner.” Amnesty International has described his treatment as an “apparent political revenge.”

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