Saakashvili officially charged with illegally crossing of border

Georgian former president Mikheil Saakashvili has been officially charged with illegally crossing into Georgia from Ukraine at the end of September 2021, after eight years in political exile. 

 

The Georgian Chief Prosecutor’s Office says that Elguja Tsomaia, who has already been charged with concealment of crime in Saakashvili’s case, supported the former president to illegally enter Georgia. 

 

The Prosecutor’s Office says that on September 28, Tsomaia’s truck moved down from a ship named Vilnius in Poti Port of western Georgia.

 

The ship crossed into Georgia from Ukraine. 

 

Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1, a day before Georgia’s municipal elections, in a flat owned by Tsomaia. 

 

Two other individuals have been charged in the case, a father and a son, who supported Saakashvili to get to the flat from western Georgia. 

 

Saakashvili, who has been on hunger strike since his detention, says that he returned to Georgia to help his United National Movement party replace the ‘pro-Russian Georgian Dream government.’ 

 

He was convicted in Georgia in absentia for abuse of authority back in 2018 and was sentenced to six years in prison. 

 

Saakashvili has been charged with four other offences as of today.