The Tbilisi City Court has ruled in favor of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia, ordering the country’s third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, and the former head of the Special State Protection Service, Teimuraz Janashia, to compensate the state approximately 9 million lari, equivalent to about 3.3 million US dollars. This decision was made by Judge Alexander Gzirishvili.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Case Circumstances and Defense Position
Saakashvili and Janashia were convicted in the so-called “jacket case” for embezzling significant amounts of budget funds by a group of individuals in collusion using their official positions. According to Saakashvili’s lawyer, Beka Basilashvili, the judicial system in Georgia operates under political influence, and the decisions regarding Saakashvili are selective and politically motivated.
“They say that Saakashvili must reimburse expenses, for example, for hosting Donald Trump in Georgia or laying flowers at Vaclav Havel’s grave. What does this mean? We have repeatedly seen selective, politically motivated, and completely unfounded decisions in Saakashvili’s cases. Now, financial persecution has been added to this – they want to include him in the debtor registry. Wherever we appeal, the same judges are waiting for us there.”
Recent Court Decisions and Prospects
On September 29, the Appeals Court is considering the defense’s appeals against the verdict in the jacket case, as well as a counter-appeal from the prosecution, which insists on replacing Janashia’s fine with a real prison sentence. Earlier, on March 12, 2025, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced Saakashvili to 9 years in prison and imposed a fine of 300,000 lari on Janashia. Following this, the Ministry of Finance filed a civil lawsuit to recover 9 million lari from them.
In March, the court also found Saakashvili guilty in the case of illegal border crossing, sentencing him to an additional four years and six months in prison. Thus, taking all sentences into account, Mikheil Saakashvili is to spend a total of 12 years and 6 months behind bars. The politician and his party are convinced that all the sentences have a political basis.