Saakashvili sentenced in Georgia to 3 years in absentia

A court in Georgia on Friday sentenced former President Mikheil Saakashvili in absentia to three years in prison for abusing his power in the pardoning of four policemen convicted of murdering a banker. Saakashvili, who was president 2004-13, left Georgia when his presidency ended and eventually went to Ukraine, where he had been appointed governor of the Odessa region. He resigned in 2016 and harshly criticized President Petro Poroshenko. The Ukrainian leader last year stripped Saakashvili of his citizenship while he was abroad; Saakashvili returned to Ukraine in September and has led a series of protests against the government. A court in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, sentenced Saakashvili on Friday. Georgia has requested Saakashvili’s extradition, but Ukraine has not complied. The verdict “is completely illegal and contradicts all international, national norms and common sense,” Saakashvili said on Facebook. “Judging the president for using the right to pardon, which is not limited in any way, speaks about the completely political nature of this process.” The country’s politics is dominated by a collation headed by the Georgian Dream party, which arose in opposition to Saakashvili. Saakashvili’s conviction stems from the 2006 beating death of banker Sandro Girgvliani. His body was found the morning after he had been involved in an argument with Interior Ministry officials in a Tbilisi cafe. Critics said the investigation of the killing was carried out poorly and reluctantly; Saakashvili was a close associate of then-Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili.