Ex-President who promised to fight corruption ended up embezzling public funds, says Georgian MP

Levan Makhashvili, the Chair of the Committee on European Integration of the Georgian Parliament, has criticised the domestic opposition’s stance on recent legal proceedings, stating that they label every case as political persecution. However, he emphasised that the court has once again confirmed the misappropriation of public funds by a former official.

Makhashvilis’s comments came after Tbilisi City Court on Wednesday sentenced the imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili to nine years in prison on charges of embezzling state funds.

“If you listen to the opposition, they claim everything is political persecution. But the fact remains - today, the court has once again confirmed that the person who once came to power under the banner of fighting corruption ended up misusing public funds”, the Parliament official said.

“We saw ₾9 million [$3.2 million] of public money being wasted - this is an embezzlement. The court confirmed that these funds were spent on matters that had nothing to do with governance or public service. The money was directly used for personal luxuries, including weight loss treatments and hair care. The public saw the evidence; the court hearings were open, and all the details were revealed. I would call this case nothing less than the theft of public funds”, he concluded.

The European Court of Human Rights last year ruled that authorities in Georgia acted properly in 2014 when bringing criminal charges for abuse of power and complicity in criminal battery against Saakashvili.

The ECHR stated that “the authorities’ honest desire was to bring the applicant to justice for his wrongdoing and that, in the absence of sufficient evidence to the contrary, the allegation of an ulterior motive is unsubstantiated”.

Saakashvili is currently serving a six-year sentence after being convicted in 2018 of ordering riot police to beat Georgian MP Valery Gelashvili in 2005, and for pardoning interior ministry staff convicted in the 2006 murder of bank employee Sandro Girgvliani.

The former President, who served from 2004 to 2013, was arrested when he returned to Georgia in October 2021 after spending seven years in self-imposed exile.