08:26, 19 July 2018

Appeal court confirms Saakashvili's three-year sentence

The Court of Appeal (CoA) of Tbilisi has upheld the verdict to the third Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in the case of abuse of authority in pardoning convicts for the murder of Sandro Girgvliani.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 5, the Tbilisi City Court found Mikhail Saakashvili guilty of abuse of power in pardoning the convicts in the murder case of the businessman Sandro Girgvliani and sentenced him to three years in prison. Saakashvili's defence appealed against the verdict.

The CoA, having considered the complaint of Saakashvili's defence, has fully upheld the prosecution's position, the Georgian General Prosecutor's Office stated on July 18.

The "Caucasian Knot" has also reported that at the end of this June, the Tbilisi City Court issued another verdict to Saakashvili: in the case of beating up in 2005 of Valery Gelashvili, an MP, Mikhail Saakashvili was sentenced in absentia to six years of imprisonment.

In Georgia, Saakashvili was also charged with embezzling budgetary funds, dispersing the opposition actions in November 2007, organizing a pogrom of the "Imedi" TV Company, and confiscating property of the billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 18, 2018 at 10:39 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.