Ex-pres. Saakashvili remotely attending trial hearing on his release

Mikheil Saakashvili, a currently imprisoned former president of Georgia, is remotely attending a trial hearing in Tbilisi city court on granting his release or the postponement of the rest of his six-year-sentence on medical grounds. 

Lawyers said his “poor health” had not allowed the third president to participate in the process in-person. 

The former official and his entourage claim Saakashvili is in “urgent need” of “proper treatment” abroad, while the Georgian Dream authorities say the ex-president had been engaged in “self-harm” by not following the doctors’ institutions to “escape justice”. 

Saakashvili, a citizen of Ukraine, was arrested in Tbilisi in October 2021 after eight years in self-imposed political exile and is now serving his term for abuse of power while in office. 

He said he had returned to help his United National Movement party retake office.