Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was sentenced today to an additional nine years in prison after being found guilty of embezzlement, the Interpress news agency reported.
Saakashvili, who served as the country's president from 2004 to 2013, was previously sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of office after returning to Georgia in 2021, and has served much of the sentence in the prison hospital.
Georgian television broadcast footage from the courtroom, where tension prevailed during the reading of the verdict, with Saakashvili's supporters calling the judge a "slave" of the current government.
A deeply polarizing figure in Georgia today, Saakashvili came to power in the 2003 Rose Revolution. He led daily protests in central Tbilisi and soon forced then-President Shevardnadze to resign.
His supporters did not hesitate to take over the Georgian parliament – and in 2004, in elections in which he ran virtually unopposed, he won with 96% of the vote and became the youngest president in Europe. While in power, he reoriented Georgia towards the West and launched an ambitious program of public sector reforms, which yielded rapid results in this South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people.
However, the final years of his term were marked by authoritarianism, police brutality and a devastating war with Russia in 2008.
In 2012, Saakashvili's party, the United National Movement, lost an election battle to an alliance led by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili, who remains Georgia's leader to this day.
After leaving power, Saakashvili settled in Ukraine, where he served briefly as governor of Ukraine's southern region of Odessa.
In 2021, he returned to Georgia, despite being convicted in absentia for abuse of power. He was arrested and imprisoned upon arrival in the country. (A2 Televizion)
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