Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 17, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Ex-Georgian president Saakashvili sentenced to 4.5 more years for illegal border crossing, extending his jail time to 2034.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili was sentenced on Monday to four-and-a-half more years in jail after being found guilty of illegally crossing the state border, Georgian news agency Interpress reported.
According to the verdict, Saakashvili, who has been imprisoned since 2021 on charges that he says are politically-motivated, will be in prison until 2034 as the sentences will run concurrently.
In office from 2004 to 2013, Saakashvili was convicted last week of embezzling 9 million Georgian lari ($3.3 million) via expenses claims for what prosecutors called "luxury" spending.
Saakashvili was already serving a six-year sentence for abuse of power. He has spent much of that time in a prison hospital.
He is also on trial for a crackdown on protesters in 2007.
After leaving presidential office, Saakashvili moved to Ukraine, where he briefly served as governor of the Odesa region.
He returned in 2021, despite having been convicted in absentia of abuse of power. He was jailed on arrival.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Gareth Jones)
The main topic is the additional jail sentence for former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili for illegally crossing the border.
Saakashvili is in jail for charges including abuse of power, embezzlement, and now illegal border crossing.
The new sentence extends Saakashvili's imprisonment until 2034, as it will run concurrently with his existing sentences.
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