Georgia ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili handed second prison sentence
Saakashvili, who served as Georgia's president from 2004-2013, had previously been sentenced on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement that he and his defence have rejected as politically motivated.
Judge Badri Kochlamazashvili sentenced the 57-year-old ex-president to an extra four years and six months on charges of illegal border crossing, adding time to his existing sentence.
Speaking by videoconference, Saakashvili dismissed the verdict as an 'absolutely illegal, unjust sentencing of me for crimes I have not committed.'
'They want to annihilate me in prison,' he said. "But no matter what, I will fight till the end,' he vowed.
According to his lawyer, Beka Basilaia, Monday's verdict "again showed that Saakashvili is a political prisoner."
Saakashvili is also accused of repressing demonstrators who claimed that his fervour had turned into dictatorship.
The former president, who led the country in a more pro-Western direction, led the so-called Rose Revolution protests in 2003 that drove his predecessor out of office and enacted a series of ambitious reforms tackling official corruption.
In 2008, he oversaw a brief but intense war with Russia that ended with the humiliating loss of the remaining Georgian bases in two separatist territories.
His reign was brought to an end in the 2012 election when the then newly formed Georgian Dream Party defeated Saakashvili's United National Movement party.
Saakashvili left for Ukraine in 2013 and became a citizen. From 2015 to 2016, he governed the southern Odesa region.
However, he was swiftly detained when he returned to Georgia in October 2021 in an attempt to strengthen opposition forces before the national municipal elections.
Saakashvili's lawyer on Monday accused the ruling Georgian Dream of influencing the latest extension of the ex-Georgian leader's prison term.
"As long as Georgian Dream remains in power, the judiciary is a farce and will make whatever decision it is instructed to,' Basilaia said.
Since 2012, when Saakashvili was ousted from office, the Georgian Dream Party has remained in power and itself has recently been facing criticisms and popular protests on allegations of a crackdown on democratic freedoms.
The party is also accused of steering the country away from the path toward European Union membership and back into Russia's sphere of influence.
After going on multiple hunger strikes, Saakashvili is currently being treated at the Vivamedi facility, where he is being monitored for a number of chronic illnesses, according to the clinic.
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