The former Georgian president and the leader of the Movement of New Forces party, Mikheil Saakashvili, has said he considers the Georgian court verdict against him in the case on "malicious abuse of power" in the form of three years in prison to be illegal and contrary to international and national norms.
"The 'verdict' of the Georgian court, which is under the full control of Gazprom's largest private shareholder, Ivanishvili, against me is completely illegal and contradicts all international, national norms and common sense," Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page on January 5.
Saakashvili also expressed confidence that this sentence, as well as parallel trial in Kyiv, "shows that the oligarchical authorities in Ukraine and Georgia act synchronously and in full coordination with each other" against him because of his activities in the struggle against corruption and oligarchy.
