Opposition: gov’t was forced to take Saakashvili to court

The opposition says that their activeness and the involvement of the international community have forced the Georgian Dream government to allow former president Mikheil Saakashvili attend a trial hearing in own case today. 

Lawyers and opposition members say that ‘unprecedentedly large numbers of the law enforcement’  and water cannons are present in the yard of Tbilisi City Court now, while journalists and the opposition activities are not allowed into the yard. 

Saakashvili’s lawyers have demanded live coverage from the trial hearing. 

The trial hearing today concerns the illegal dispersal of the opposition rally back in 2007, while Saakashvili was in power. 

Saakashvili was not allowed to attend  previous three trial hearings in cases concerning him because of possible provocations by the opposition activists and his health condition during hunger strike.

The third president of Georgia, who is now a citizen of Ukraine and is holding an official post there, says that he returned after eight  years in political exile to remove the Georgian Dream government from power. 

He was convicted in Georgia in absentia for abuse of power in two separate cases back in 2018 and was sentenced to six years in prison. 

Saakashvili has also been charged with five other offences, including abuse of authority in the November 2007 rally dispersal case, embezzlement, illegal seizure of property and others.