Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been discharged from a clinic in Tbilisi, where he had been since 2022, and sent back to “Correctional Facility No. 12” (Rustavi Prison), where he will continue serving his sentence under general conditions. This was announced on Wednesday, November 12, by Georgia’s Special Penitentiary Service on Facebook.
The post states that Saakashvili’s current health condition is satisfactory, and therefore he no longer requires inpatient treatment. The Georgian penitentiary service referred to the decision of the politician’s attending physician.
The former president returned to Georgia on the night of September 29, 2021. According to investigators, he secretly arrived at the Georgian port of Poti aboard the ferry Vilnius, hiding in a truck. Saakashvili posted a video on Facebook urging citizens to vote against the ruling Georgian Dream party in the October 2 elections. In his next video, the former head of state called on citizens to protest, predicting election fraud. Police and security services were able to locate him on October 1. He was arrested in Tbilisi in the apartment of the trailer driver who had brought him and taken into custody.
Saakashvili is currently serving a six-year sentence in cases related to the assault of MP Valeri Gelashvili and the pardon of the murderers of bank employee Sandro Girgvliani. On March 12, 2025, the Tbilisi City Court also sentenced the former president to nine years in prison for embezzling 9 million lari from the state budget (approximately 3 million euros). On March 17, the same court gave him an additional 4.5 years for illegal border crossing. As a result of partial aggregation of the sentences, Saakashvili’s total prison term now amounts to 12 years and 6 months.
