Former President Mikheil Saakashvili Imprisoned as Preventive Measure in Border Crossing Case
By Liza Mchedlidze
Monday, August 5, 2024
Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's third president, has been imprisoned as a preventive measure in his ongoing case of illegally crossing the state border. Judge Mikheil Jinjolia, who replaced Nino Chakhnashvili, granted the prosecutor's request, leading to this decision.
"The court believes that, considering the nature of the committed crime, there are relevant threats. Given that the trial has restarted with witnesses being questioned, there are risks of witness tampering, evidence destruction, and the possibility of committing a new crime. Therefore, the petition is well-founded," Judge Jinjolia explained.
Saakashvili's lawyer, Beka Basilaia, strongly criticized the ruling. "This is a politically motivated, unfounded, illegal, and at the same time extremely idiotic decision. The person is in a detention facility with another three years of imprisonment assigned as punishment, and the imprisonment is ordered not to influence witnesses in a case where the witnesses have already been questioned once," Basilaia stated.
He further elaborated, "The person under the supervision of the guard is given a prison sentence so that he does not commit a new crime. That is, the one who has already been executed and is in a prison institution, in this case, a medical institution, is additionally given double imprisonment, which has no legal or factual content."
Basilaia suggested that the government feared Saakashvili's potential release, though he was uncertain of the reasons or mechanisms behind this fear. "Because of these fears, they brought this illegal decision to the court," he added.
Saakashvili faces five legal cases in Georgia, with verdicts already issued in two and three still under review. He was sentenced to six years in prison and was arrested in 2021 after returning to Georgia before the elections.
