Saakashvili, ex-president of Georgia, gets 4 1/2 years more in jail, Interpress reports

FILE PHOTO: Georgia's jailed ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili appears on a screen via video link from a clinic during a court hearing in the case of the violent dispersal of anti-government mass protests in 2007, in Tbilisi, Georgia, October 27, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/Pool/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili was sentenced on Monday to four-and-a-half more years in jail after being found guilty of illegally crossing the state border, Georgian news agency Interpress reported.

According to the verdict, Saakashvili, who has been imprisoned since 2021 on charges that he says are politically-motivated, will be in prison until 2034 as the sentences will run concurrently.