The Tbilisi City Court on Wednesday jailed former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to 9 years in jail for embezzling public funds.
The court docket discovered Saakashvili responsible of utilizing state price range funds for private bills throughout his presidency, together with paying for his son’s training, renting planes and luxurious automobiles, and buying gadgets for his private wardrobe.
The costs have been introduced towards him in 2014, with the estimated injury amounting to 9 million Georgian lari ($2.9 million).
Saakashvili’s protection argued that these expenditures have been associated to the previous president’s official illustration.
“I am being tried as a thief and falsely accused because I underwent medical procedures and sought to represent my country at the highest level, both when I traveled and when hosting visitors here,” Saakashvili mentioned throughout one of many court docket hearings.
Currently, Saakashvili is underneath therapy on the Vivamedi Civilian Clinic in Tbilisi, the place he was transferred from detention in May 2022 after a protracted starvation strike.
In at the moment’s court docket session, he complained of his deteriorating well being and requested a postponement of his sentencing.
In addition to this case, Saakashvili is serving a six-year sentence for the assault on lawmaker Valery Gelashvili and for pardoning the murderers of Sandro Girgvliani, head of the United Georgian Bank’s Foreign Department, who was discovered lifeless in January 2006 on the outskirts of the Georgian capital.
Source: www.anews.com.tr