Half of Georgia was against pardoning Saakashvili — Zurabishvili

Ex-President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili said that she tried to convince the government of the country to replace ex-President Mikhail Saakashvili's imprisonment with house arrest with an electronic bracelet, but the authorities ignored this initiative.

"As a human being, I felt sorry for him before, and I tried, while I had some kind of relationship with the government, to convince them to treat him differently from the president and release him with a bracelet, as it happens in democratic, civilized countries," Zurabishvili said on Formula TV channel.

She also recalled that the pardon of the former head of state "would not change anything," since pending cases remain in court against him.

"He would not have been out of prison for a single day," Zurabishvili said.

Also, according to Zurabishvili, whom Saakashvili's supporters cannot forgive for not pardoning him, this "was unacceptable, based on a moral position," since "half of the country opposed it."

"Therefore, there can be no regret," she added.

Saakashvili left Georgia in 2013 after the end of his second presidential term. After that, four criminal cases were opened against him. On two of them — abuse of authority — he was sentenced in absentia to three and six years in prison.

On March 12, 2025, the court found him guilty in the case of embezzlement of more than $ 3.2 million of public funds and appointed a nine-year term.

In addition, Saakashvili was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for illegally crossing the border in 2021, when he secretly arrived in Georgia and was detained. In total, the terms are 12 years and 6 months in prison.

One more case remains under consideration — the dispersal of the rally on November 7, 2007 and the storming of the Imedi television company.

Saakashvili's United National Movement party believes that if Zurabishvili had pardoned the ex-president, this would have prevented the court from applying the principle of adding time limits.