Transparency International Georgia to include Mikheil Saakashvili on political prisoners list

The organisation Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) has announced that former President Mikheil Saakashvili will be included in the list of political prisoners compiled by the monitoring group.

According to the organisation’s statement, Mikheil Saakashvili’s legal defence approached TI Georgia in July 2026 and submitted materials from specific cases for review: namely the so-called “suits case” (alleged embezzlement of state funds), the illegal border crossing case, and the case concerning the raid on Imedi TV.

“We did not examine the cases already reviewed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), specifically the presidential pardon of those convicted in the Sandro Girgvliani case and the assault on Valeri Gelashvili, in which the ECHR found no violation of Articles 6 and 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding Mikheil Saakashvili.

In our organisation’s assessment, the guilty verdict delivered in the so-called ‘suits case’ is unsubstantiated and unjust, while the ongoing legal proceedings against him are politically motivated. Consequently, under Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Resolution 1900 (2012), Mikheil Saakashvili meets four out of the five criteria required to be designated a political prisoner,” the organisation stated.

For context, Transparency International Georgia had previously compiled a similar list of political prisoners from which the former president was excluded. That decision had drawn criticism from Mikheil Saakashvili himself at the time.