Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was found guilty of illegally crossing the state border under Article 344 of the Criminal Code and sentenced to four years and six months in prison by the Tbilisi City Court Judge Mikheil Jinjolia on March 17.
The verdict came just days after Judge Badri Kochmalazashvili found the former president guilty of misusing 9 million GEL from the state budget in a separate case and sentenced him to 9 years in prison. Judge Mikheil Jinjolia delivered Monday’s ruling, adding to Saakashvili’s legal woes. “Finally, the totality of the verdicts determines that the total punishment for Mikheil Saakashvili amounts to the imprisonment for a term of 12 years and 6 months,” Jinjolia said. Saakashvili has been in custody since October 2021.
Judge Jinjolia used the entry of the Criminal Code, according to which: “If the set of crimes consists of serious or especially serious crimes, when imposing the final sentence, the sentences determined for these crimes shall be partially or completely combined. In addition, the term of the final sentence imposed in the form of fixed-term imprisonment shall not exceed twenty-five years.”
The investigation into the illegal border crossing began on October 1, 2021, when Saakashvili was detained after secretly returning to Georgia from Ukraine on the night of September 28-29, just before 2021 local elections.
Four other individuals — Elguja Tsomaia, Zurab Tsotoria, Shalva Tsotsoria, and Giorgi Narimanidze — were also charged in connection with the border-crossing case. Their case is handled separately after they were released on bail of 5,000 GEL (approximately $1,600) each in January 2022.
Prior to these recent convictions, Saakashvili had already been sentenced to six years in prison for pardoning police officers involved in the high-profile murder of Sandro Girgvliani and for exceeding his authority and organizing intentional infliction of serious injury to health in connection with an attack on opposition lawmaker Valeri Gelashvili.
Saakashvili was Georgia’s president from 2004 to 2013 before leaving the country. He later became a Ukrainian citizen and has consistently denied all charges against him, claiming they are politically motivated.
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