Former Georgia president sentenced to 9 years in extra prison for embezzlement

Saakashvili, who served as president of the country from 2004 to 2013, was sentenced to six years earlier for abuse of office after returning to Georgia in 2021, while much of the sentence was carried out at the prison hospital.

Georgian television broadcast images from the courtroom, where tension prevailed in reading the decision, with Saakashvili supporters naming the judge a “slav”> of the current government.

A deeply polarizing figure in Georgia today, Saakashvili came to power in the 2003 Rose Revolution. He led the daily protests in the centre of Tbilisi and soon forced then President Shevardnadze to resign.

His supporters did not hesitate to conquer the Georgian Parliament, and in 2004, in elections where he ran practically without an opponent, he won 96% of the vote and became the youngest president in Europe. While in power, he reoriented Georgia into the West and launched an ambitious public sector reform programme that had rapid results in this South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people.

However, recent years of his mandate were marked by authoritarianism, police brutality and a devastating fight with Russia in 2008.

In 2012, Saakashvili's party, the United National Movement, lost an electoral battle against an alliance led by billionaire businessman Bidzin Ivanisvili, who remains Georgia's leader to this day.

After leaving power, Saakashvili settled in Ukraine, where he served briefly as governor of the southern Ukrainian region of Odessa.

In 2021 he returned to Georgia, despite being condemned in absentia for abuse of office. He was arrested and imprisoned on arrival. (A2 Television)