Mikhail Saakashvili claimed during the court hearing that he is actually being persecuted not for attempting to overthrow the government, but for "insulting the shark from Bidzina Ivanishvili's home aquarium," who is the founder of the ruling party "Georgian Dream."
The session began with a conflict between the former president and Judge Bugianishvili. The judge demanded that Saakashvili take his place in the defendant's dock, to which he responded that he did not intend to sit down as he does not consider himself a schoolboy. Saakashvili also expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of the court bailiffs and called the judge "an unscrupulous person," after which Bugianishvili threatened to expel him from the courtroom.
The Chief Prosecutor's Office of Georgia initiated a sixth criminal case against Saakashvili last year under Article 317 of the Criminal Code, which pertains to calls for violent change of power. As evidence, prosecutors presented screenshots and excerpts from the former president's publications on social media. According to this article, the maximum penalty is three years of imprisonment.
Mikhail Saakashvili, who served as the president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, was detained on September 29, 2021, after his secret return from Ukraine, where he had been hiding in a container with dairy products on a ferry. By that time, he already had a conviction in absentia from a Tbilisi court for six and three years of imprisonment.
On March 17, 2025, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced Saakashvili to 12.5 years in prison on a cumulative basis for charges of embezzlement, abuse of power, and illegal border crossing. Thus, the former president will be able to be released only in April 2034.
