Saakashvili sentenced to further four years in prison

A court in Georgia has been issued another prison sentence in the former president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Saakashvili was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for illegal crossing of the border when returning to the country in 2021, his lawyer said.

It has already fulfilled simultaneous conditions for theft and abuse of power while operating, bringing a total term for more than 12 years.

Saakashvili always denied violations and called him the last sentence “illegal” and “unfair”. Human rights groups say his imprisonment is politically motivated.

Saakashvili opposes the Georgia ruling party, which contributes to closer ties with Russia. As a president, he sought to establish a closer relationship with the Western governments.

In a video posted on X on Monday from the hospital where he is being held, Saakashvili said: “No matter I will fight.”

Last week, the former president was sentenced to nine years behind the theft, which works near the prison he had already served. In 2018, he was tried in correspondence and sentenced in two separate trials.

Saakashvili was arrested in 2021 after an unexpected return to Georgia ahead of the country’s local elections, smuggling to the country on the ferry from Ukraine.

He called for mass anti -government demonstrations, but he was quickly arrested by Georgian authorities.

The 57-year-old guy led Georgia for two terms from 2004 to 2013. He lived in Ukraine since his exit from the country.

In 2015, he was granted Ukrainian citizenship, abandoning Georgian citizenship when he became Ukraine’s governor in Odessa.

His citizenship was abolished in 2017 before re -restored by the President of the Bold City in 2019.

“This (verdict) mainly sends a message … President Zelensky to scare him to show what was happening when you don’t give his country … I didn’t give Georgia,” Saakashvili said in his video, wearing a black shirt with the words “I Ukrainian” decorated on it.

Zelensky, who appointed Saakashvili to oversee reforms in Ukraine, demanded to be transferred to Kyiv.

Earlier, he accused Russia of Saakashvili’s “Murder” at the hands of the Georgian authorities.

The European Union has repeatedly called for Saakashvili’s immediate release from prison, Expressing concern about his health deterioration.

The Council of Europe, worthy of the rights, called it “political”, while Amnesty International called its treatment of “obvious political revenge”.