Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Creating liberating content

US President Donald Trump announced that he has discontinued Secret

Voice of America director says Trump’s dismantling of agency is

Yemen’s Iran-supported Houthi rebels announced on Tuesday that they conducted

Related News

US President Donald Trump announced that he has discontinued Secret Service protection for former President Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Trump also withdrew security protection for Ashley Biden, daughter of the

Voice of America director says Trump’s dismantling of agency is “self-inflicted blow” – CBS News Watch CBS News Voice of America, the government-funded news agency launched during World War II

Yemen’s Iran-supported Houthi rebels announced on Tuesday that they conducted another strike against a US aircraft carrier group, marking their third such assault within 48 hours. They stated this was

NEW DELHI: Isro’s second spaceport outside Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota, which is coming up at Kulasekarapattinam coastal town in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district, will see its maiden launch of a small

Due process concerns for immigrants deported for alleged gang membership – CBS News Watch CBS News More than 130 Venezuelan migrants were expelled from the U.S. under the 227-year-old “Alien

In a candid conversation during a podcast, England cricketers Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali were asked if they would play for Pakistan in international cricket. While the host

Trending News

MUMBAI: RBI has pumped in over Rs 5 lakh crore into the banking system since mid-Jan through bond purchases, forex swaps and early-April maturity repos. To ensure that liquidity remains

Top stocks to buy (AI image) Stock market recommendations: According to Somil Mehta, Head – Alternate Research, Capital Market Strategy, Mirae Asset Sharekhan, Trent and Bharat Forge are the top

NEW DELHI: India’s trade deficit has narrowed to a 42-month low of $14 billion in Feb 2025, thanks primarily to imports slowing to $51 billion, data released by the commerce

US President Trump with PM Modi NEW DELHI: Amid US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, India is engaging with the US to find ways of increasing trade and discussing the

Bajaj to buy out Allianz’s stakes in insurance joint ventures MUMBAI: In the biggest insurance sector deal in India, Bajaj group will buy out Allianz’s 26% stakes in their life

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are on track for the worst-ever annual equity selloff in FY25 in rupee terms, driven by sustained outflows since October 2024. In the first two weeks

Mikheil Saakashvili: Georgia ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili’s prison terms now total over 12 years after latest verdict

Word Count: 747 | Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes


Georgia ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili's prison terms now total over 12 years after latest verdict
File photo: Georgia’s jailed ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili

TBILISI: A court in Georgia on Monday handed another prison sentence to former President Mikheil Saakashvili, extending his total imprisonment to 12½ years, in a verdict that he denounced as illegal.
Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s president from 2004-2013, had previously been sentenced on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement that he and his defence have rejected as politically motivated.
On Monday, the court sentenced him to four years and six months on charges of illegal border crossing. With his previous sentences accumulated, he now has to serve 12 years and six months behind bars.
Saakashvili, speaking by videoconference, dismissed Monday’s verdict as an “absolutely illegal, unjust sentencing of me for crimes I have not committed.”
“They want to annihilate me in prison,” he said. “But no matter what, I will fight till the end.”
Saakashvili, who led the so-called Rose Revolution protests in 2003 that drove his predecessor out of office, enacted a series of ambitious reforms tacking official corruption as president of the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million. He also presided over a short but fierce war with Russia in 2008 that ended with the humiliating loss of its last footholds in two separatist territories, and he cracked down on protesters who charged that his zeal had mutated into autocracy.
In 2012, Saakashvili’s United National Movement party lost the election to the Georgian Dream party established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia. Georgian Dream has remained in power ever since, tightening its grip on democratic freedoms and drawing accusations from the opposition of steering the country away from the path toward European Union membership and back into Russia’s sphere of influence.
Saakashvili left for Ukraine in 2013, obtained Ukrainian citizenship and served as a governor of the country’s southern Odesa region from 2015-16. He returned to Georgia in October 2021 to try to bolster opposition forces before nationwide municipal elections and was quickly arrested.
The former president spent much of his time behind bars in a prison hospital after going on a hunger strikes and later claiming that he had been poisoned. He is currently receiving medical treatment at the Vivamedi Clinic, where he is being monitored for several chronic conditions, and his health reportedly worsens periodically, according to the clinic.
Saakashvili’s lawyer, Beka Basilaia, said that Monday’s verdict again showed that Saakashvili is a political prisoner.
“As long as Georgian Dream remains in power, the judiciary is a farce and will make whatever decision it is instructed to,” Basilaia said.





Source link

Most Popular Articles

Sign In

Welcome ! Log into Your Account