Tbilisi court sentences Georgian ex-president Saakashvili in absentia to 6 years

Tbilisi City Court has sentenced former President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili to six years in prison in absentia for exceeding official powers, violence and deliberate damage to heath over the high profile violence case against opposition lawmaker Valeri Gelashvili.

Saakashvili was also banned from taking any state post for two years and three months, Agenda.ge reports.

The opposition lawmaker Gelashvili was brutally beaten in 2005 under the United National Movement leadership.

The former Interior Minister of Georgia Ivane Merabishvili was also sentenced in the case.