In total, Saakashvili faces five charges, two of which are still in progress; including a charge of illegally crossing the border into Georgia.
The European Court of Human Rights last year ruled that Georgia’s pro-Russian authorities had acted correctly with Saakashvili’s case, which it said had been handled in keeping with European standards — refuting the ex-president’s claim that his prosecution was politically motivated.
Saakashvili was president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, during which he pushed a pro-Western agenda and clashed with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, who invaded Georgia in 2008. Around a fifth of Georgia’s territory, in the disputed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, is occupied by Russian armed forces and the separatist regimes it supports.
The ruling Georgian Dream party initially held a pro-Western agenda when it came to power in 2012, but made a foreign policy U-turn after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The country also saw its application to join the EU suspended in July 2024 amid warnings of backsliding on human rights.
Dato Parulava contributed to this report.
