Saakashvili, who was president from 2004 to 2013, was jailed for six years for abuse of power after he returned to Georgia in 2021 after a spell abroad.

He has spent much of that sentence in a prison hospital.

Georgian television showed scenes of commotion in the courtroom after the verdict was announced, with Saakashvili supporters calling the judge a “slave” of the present government.

A deeply polarising figure in Georgia today, Saakashvili rose to power on a tide of popular acclaim in the 2003 Rose Revolution.

In power, he re-orientated Georgia towards the west and embarked on an ambitious public sector reform programme that delivered rapid improvements in the South Caucasus country of 3.7 million.

However, the latter part of his tenure was marked by authoritarianism, police brutality and a disastrous 2008 war with Russia.

In 2012, his United National Movement party lost an election to a coalition headed by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire businessman who remains Georgia’s de facto leader to this day.

After leaving office, Saakashvili moved to Ukraine, where he briefly served as governor of the southern Odesa region.

In 2021, he returned to Georgia, despite having been convicted in absentia of abuse of power.

He was arrested and jailed on arrival.