British war veteran fined, deported from Georgia after plea deal in drug import case

A Georgian court has approved a plea agreement under which British war veteran Matthew Roy Desmond was fined 100,000 lari, ordered to be deported from Georgia and banned from re-entering the country for 20 years.

Judge Nino Galustashvili approved the terms of the agreement reached with prosecutors.

Desmond had been charged under Articles 262(1) and 262(2) of Georgia's Criminal Code, which cover the illegal import of large quantities of narcotic and psychotropic substances and carry a prison sentence of between eight and 12 years.

According to his lawyers, Desmond had valid medical prescriptions for all of the medication he was using as pain relief, but those medicines were classified under Georgian law as illegally imported narcotic and psychotropic substances.