
Georgian court sentences former President Saakashvili to 9 more years in prison
A Georgian court sentenced on Wednesday the country's former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to nine more years in prison after finding him guilty of embezzlement, the Interpress news agency reported.
Saakashvili, who was president from 2004 to 2013, was jailed for six years for abuse of power after he returned to Georgia in 2021. He has spent much of that sentence in a prison hospital.

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Arab News
20-05-2025
- Arab News
Georgia court rejects jailed ex-president Saakashvili's appeal
TBILISI: A Georgian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili against a prison sentence that he and his backers see as political retribution by his opponents. The pro-Western reformist politician, who ruled the Caucasus country from 2004 to 2013, was arrested in 2021 after returning to Georgia from exile in Ukraine in the back of a dairy truck. Saakashvili, 57, was sentenced in multiple cases to a combined 12 years and six months earlier this year, charged with misuse of public funds and illegally crossing Georgia's border. 'The Tbilisi court of appeals upheld the verdict,' his lawyer Beka Basilaia told journalists on Tuesday. The sole appeal had been against a four-and-a-half-year sentence for the illegal border crossing. Basilaia criticized what he called an 'unprecedented' move by the court not to conduct an oral hearing as part of the appeal. Saakashvili and rights groups have denounced his prosecution as a political move by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which has been accused of democratic backsliding and growing rapprochement with Moscow. Saakashvili has been held in a civilian hospital since 2022, when he staged a 50-day hunger strike in protest at his detention. The European Parliament has called for his immediate release. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of 'killing' Saakashvili 'at the hands of the Georgian authorities.' Zelensky granted Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship and named him one of his top advisers in 2019. Georgia and Russia fought a short war in 2008 — while Saakashvili was president — for control of breakaway Georgian territories. The European Union and the United States have urged Georgia to ensure Saakashvili is provided medical treatment and that his rights are protected. The Council of Europe rights watchdog has branded him a 'political prisoner,' while Amnesty International has called his treatment 'apparent political revenge.' Georgian authorities have also jailed several former Saakashvili officials, in what rights groups have described as a political witch-hunt.


Arab News
02-05-2025
- Arab News
Greece arrests man on suspicion of spying for Russia
THESSALONIKI: Greek authorities have arrested a man in the strategic port city of Alexandroupolis on suspicion of photographing supply convoys on behalf of Russia, police said. The suspect, a 59-year-old Greek citizen of Georgian descent, was arrested in the northeastern city on Tuesday and on Friday was taken before an investigating magistrate, according to police and media reports. The man 'confessed to taking photos and video of military material, acting on behalf of another person to whom he sent the footage via an encrypted application,' the police statement said in a statement released on Tuesday. A police source told AFP this week that the man, who has identified himself as a house painter, was targeting military convoys to Ukraine, according to footage retrieved from his cellphone. The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia's GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary. Greek media have reported that this intermediary was a Georgian man with organized crime links living in Lithuania. Despite historic ties to Russia, Greece has supported Ukraine since the start of the invasion. The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military, used to transport supplies into Europe under a mutual defense pact.


Al Arabiya
12-03-2025
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Georgian court sentences former President Saakashvili to 9 more years in prison
A Georgian court sentenced on Wednesday the country's former president, Mikheil Saakashvili, to nine more years in prison after finding him guilty of embezzlement, the Interpress news agency reported. Saakashvili, who was president from 2004 to 2013, was jailed for six years for abuse of power after he returned to Georgia in 2021. He has spent much of that sentence in a prison hospital.