Individuals who helped ex-pres. Saakashvili illegally enter Georgia released on bail
Mikheil Saakashvili, who served as the country’s third president from 2004 to 2013, was sentenced to six years of imprisonment in absentia in 2018 for the abuse of power. Additionally, he is charged with several other offences including illegal seizure of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal and illegal border crossing. Photo: IPN.
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Giorgi Narimanidze, Elguja Tsomaia, Zurab and Shalva Tsotsoria, the four individuals who helped former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili illegally enter the country last September, were released on 5,000 GEL bail by Tbilisi City Court on Thursday.
The defence, in agreement with the defendants, acknowledged all the evidence presented by the prosecution at today’s hearing. Following this, the City Court released the defendants on 5,000 GEL bail each. They have been given a month to pay the amount.
Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after returning from eight years in political exile.
Police arrested Elguja Tsomaia - who offered his flat to Saakashvili as a temporary residence and hiding spot - on October 3, while father and son Zurab and Shalva Tsotsoria were arrested on October 5 for transporting Saakashvili to Georgia’s western region of Samegrelo after he illegally entered the country from Ukraine.
Giorgi Narimanidze, the driver of the truck in which Saakashvili was hidden while travelling from the Black Sea port city of Poti to capital Tbilisi, was arrested and charged with concealment of crime on October 20.
Saakashvili, who served as the country’s third president from 2004 to 2013, was sentenced to six years of imprisonment in absentia in 2018 for the abuse of power.
Additionally, the ex-president is charged with several other offenses including illegal seizure of property, embezzlement, illegal rally dispersal and illegal border crossing.
Four individuals who helped former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili illegally enter the country have been denied bail earlier today by Tbilisi City Court. Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi on October 1 after returning from eight years in political exile.
Police have arrested one more individual in connection with the illegal crossing of the national border by former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Georgian former President Mikheil Saakashvili allegedly entered Georgia’s Black Sea port city of Poti via Ukrainian private company UkrFerry’s boat Vilnius ‘hidden in a truck,’ the Georgian Public Broadcaster’s (GPB) weekly analytical program New Week reports. The GPB says Saakashvili set foot in Georgia on September 29 at nine p.m. via boat which departed from the trading port of Chernomorsk in the Odessa region.
Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili has been detained today, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has announced. "Our law enforcement agencies had prior information about his (Saakashvili’s) movement from Ukraine to Georgia and the process was under the control” Garibashvili stated.