Appeals Court upholds ex-President Saakashvili’s sentence in border crossing case without hearing

The Georgian Court of Appeals has rejected the complaint filed by former President Mikheil Saakashvili regarding his conviction in the illegal border crossing case. Judge Davit Mamiseishvili made the decision on May 16 without holding an oral hearing, according to Saakashvili’s lawyer, Beka Basilaia.

Basilaia stated that the conviction, which had been handed down about two months ago, sentenced Saakashvili to 4 years and 6 months in prison for illegally crossing the Georgian border. Combined with previous convictions using Georgia’s legal provision on the aggregation of sentences, Saakashvili's total prison term was set at 12 years and 6 months—a decision Basilaya described as legally flawed and unprecedented in Georgian judicial practice.

“We appealed the decision with a range of arguments based not only on our legal position but also on prior court practices, which show that such aggregation of sentences is practically unheard of,” said Basilaia. “Moreover, we provided strong arguments as to why the act in question should not be considered a criminal offense at all.”

The defense criticized the appeals court for not holding a hearing or allowing oral arguments, effectively denying Saakashvili the right to a fair appellate review. Basilaia called the court's handling of the case unprecedented and claimed it undermined Saakashvili’s legal rights.

The same judge, Davit Mamiseishvili, is also expected to consider Saakashvili’s appeal in the so-called “jacket case,” another high-profile case against the former president.

Saakashvili had previously been convicted in two separate cases: 6 years for the assault of MP Valeri Gelashvili and 9 years in the "jacket case," which involved alleged misuse of public funds. The latest ruling combines these sentences under the Georgian Criminal Code’s principle of “concurrence of crimes,” resulting in a total sentence of 12 years and 6 months.