TBILISI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd December, 2021) Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will skip the Tbilisi city court's hearing on the case of illegal border crossing due to his medical condition, his lawyer, Beka Basilaia, said on Wednesday.
Saakashvili was detained for illegal border crossing on October, a day before parliamentary election in Georgia. Currently, Saakashvili is stationed in a military hospital in the city of Gori for treatment after he went on a hunger strike shortly after he was put in jail.
"Saakashvili will not be present at the court's hearing on Wednesday due to his medical condition. He is weak," Basilaia told reporters.
Saakashvili was the president of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 2008-2013 and was barred from seeking a third term under the Georgian constitution. Shortly after the end of his term, Saakashvili left the country. He actively supported Ukraine's Euromaidan in 2014 and in 2015 he was appointed the governor of the Ukrainian region of Odessa by then-President Petro Poroshenko and was granted Ukrainian citizenship, stripping him of Georgian citizenship due to restrictions on dual nationality under Georgian law.
Saakashvili was convicted in absentia for abusing his presidential powers by trying to cover up evidence about the murder of banker Sandro Girgvliani and for beating of opposition lawmaker Valery Gelashvili and was sentenced to nine years in jail. He also faces charges over dispersal of opposition protests in 2007, inflicting serious damage on Georgian broadcaster Imedi and of state's budget spending.
