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A court in Georgia has delivered a more prison sentence to the former president already imprisoned, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Saakashvili was sentenced Monday to four and a half years after bars for illegally crossing the border when he returned to the country from exile in 2021, said his lawyer.
It is already serving concurrent terms for embezzlement and abuse of power while in office, taking its total sentence to more than 12 years.
Saakashvili has always denied irregularities and called its last “illegal” and “unfair” prayer. The rights groups say that their imprisonment is politically motivated.
Saakashvili opposes the ruling Georgian dream party, which favors the closest ties with Russia. As president, he tried to forge closer relationships with Western governments.
In a video posted in X on Monday from the hospital where he is detained, Saakashvili said: “It doesn’t matter what, I will fight until the end.”
The former president was sentenced last week to nine years after bars for embezzlement, running along with the term of the prison he had already been serving. In 2018, he was tried in the absence and sentenced in two separate judgments.
Saakashvili was arrested in 2021 after making a surprise return to Georgia before the local smuggled elections in the country in a ferry from Ukraine.
He requested massive anti -government manifestations, but was quickly arrested by the Georgian authorities.
The 57 -year -old man had taken Georgia for two periods between 2004 and 2013. Since he left the country, he had mostly lived in Ukraine.
He was awarded to Ukrainian citizens in 2015, renouncing his Georgian citizenship when he became governor of the Odessa region of Ukraine.
His citizenship was revoked in 2017 before being restored again by President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019.
“This (prayer) is basically sending a message … to President Zelensky, so that they scare that it happens when you do not deliver to your country … I did not give Georgia,” Saakashvili said in his video direction while using a black shirt with the words “I am Ukraine.”
Zelensky, who appointed Saakashvili to supervise the reforms in Ukraine, has demanded his transfer to kyiv.
He previously accused Russia of “Killing” Saakashvili “at the hands of the Georgian authorities.”
The European Union has repeatedly requested the immediate release of Saakashvili from the prison, expressing concern for their deteriorated health.
The Rights Vigilante of the Council of Europe has described him as a “political prisoner”, while Amnesty International has called his treatment an “apparent political revenge.”
