Saakashvili is criminal, he’ll have to fully serve his sentence – Vice PM

Saakashvili is a criminal and he will have to fully serve his sentence. All the efforts of his entourage to help him escape justice will be fruitless, Vice prime minister Thea Tsulukiani said on Wednesday. 

“We are dealing with a prisoner with difficult behavior, who cannot adapt to legal punishment, despite the fact he had committed a number of crimes. He still has the illusion that he is not a criminal, but a builder”, Tsulukiani said, who earlier served as the country’s justice minister. 

She stressed Saakashvili was behind a “criminal regime” while in office and an “independent” court had sentenced him to prison. 

Saakashvili and his entourage claim the former official is in “urgent need” of “proper treatment” abroad due to “very complicated health in custody”, while the Georgian Dream authorities say the third president is engaged in “self-harm” through not obeying doctors, to “escape justice”. 

A trial hearing on the release of Saakashvili on medical grounds in Tbilisi city court will take place on Friday. 

The former official was arrested in Tbilisi in 2021, after eight years in self-imposed political exile, and is currently serving his six-year-term for abuse of power, while three other cases are still pending.