A court in Georgia has given former president Mikheil Saakashvili more prison time.
On Monday, he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for illegally entering the country in 2021 after living in exile, according to his lawyer.
Saakashvili is already serving time for embezzlement and abuse of power while in office, bringing his total prison sentence to over 12 years.
He has always denied any wrongdoing, calling his latest sentence “illegal” and “unfair.” Human rights groups believe his imprisonment is politically motivated.
Saakashvili has been a strong critic of the ruling Georgian Dream party, which supports closer ties with Russia. During his presidency, he pushed for stronger relations with Western countries.
In a video posted on X on Monday from the hospital where he is being held, Saakashvili said: “No matter what, I will fight to the end.”
Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili was sentenced last week to nine more years in prison for embezzlement. This sentence runs alongside the jail time he was already serving.
In 2018, he was tried in absentia and sentenced in two separate cases.
Saakashvili was arrested in 2021 after secretly returning to Georgia by smuggling himself on a ferry from Ukraine just before the country’s local elections. He urged people to protest against the government, but authorities quickly detained him.
Now 57 years old, he served as Georgia’s leader for two terms from 2004 to 2013. After leaving, he mostly lived in Ukraine.
In 2015, he was granted Ukrainian citizenship and gave up his Georgian nationality to become governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region. However, his Ukrainian citizenship was revoked in 2017 before being restored in 2019 by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“This [sentence] is basically sending a message… to President Zelensky, for them to scare him to show what happens when you don’t surrender your country… I did not surrender Georgia,” Saakashvili said in his video address while wearing a black shirt with the words “I’m Ukrainian” emblazoned on it.
Zelensky, who appointed Saakashvili to oversee reforms in Ukraine, has demanded his transfer to Kyiv.
He has previously accused Russia of “killing” Saakashvili “at the hands of the Georgian authorities”.
The European Union has repeatedly called for Saakashvili’s immediate release from prison, expressing concern over his deteriorating health.
The Council of Europe rights watchdog has branded him a “political prisoner,” while Amnesty International has called his treatment an “apparent political revenge”.