Saakashvili still not attending his trial hearing

Former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili is not attending a trial hearing today which concerns illegal crossing from Ukraine to Georgia by him in September 2021, ahead of Georgia’s October municipal elections. 

Saakashvili refused to participate online in the hearing because he is demanding in person presence at trial hearings concerning him. 

His lawyers say that the Georgian Dream government is violating Saakashvili’s rights when he is not taken to court. 

The Special Penitentiary Service of Georgia says that the opposition activists plan unrest on the street if Saakashvili is brought to the court. 

Saakashvili has not requested the holding of trial hearings in own cases in a prison as well. 

Saakashvili was convicted in Georgia in absentia in 2018 for abuse of power and was sentenced to six years in prison. 

He has also been charged with five other offenses, including illegal takeover of property, illegal rally dispersal, embezzlement and illegal border crossing. 

Saakashvili was refused to attend trial hearings into the cases concerning illegal rally dispersal back in 2007, embezzlement of 8.8 million GEL state funds and illegal crossing of border. 

He says he returned to Georgia after eight years in political exile to remove the Georgian Dream from power. 

Saakashvili has been on hunger strike for 47 days, saying that he is a political prisoner. 

Currently he is a citizen of Ukraine, chairing the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council.