Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili has dismissed allegations of spending state funds for botox procedures while in office. 

He claimed at a trial hearing in Tbilisi City Court yesterday that the case concerned a skin disease which he suffered after the Russia-Georgia 2008 war ‘on neurological grounds.’ 

Saakashvili says that the clinics where he was undertaking the treatment ‘can confirm it was no aesthetic procedure.’ 

“You can also see on photos how my face is swollen in the wake of the war. The disease required treatment with special devices,” Saakashvili said. 

The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office says that per the agreement between Saakashvili and former head of Special State Protection Service of Georgia, Teimuraz Janashia, between 2009 and 2013, the state funds were used for expensive procedures and clothes for Saakashvili and his close circle, including botox procedures. 

The Prosecutor’s Office says that the money was cut from the budget of the state agency in a classified manner. 

Saakashvili has been charged with embezzlement of almost nine million GEL in the case.