Meanwhile, in Saakashvili's other trial, closing arguments made:
By RFE/RL's Georgian Service
TBILISI -- Closing arguments have been made in a Tbilisi court at the trial in absentia of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who faces charges connected to a 2006 murder case.
Judge Giorgi Arvevadze announced on January 3 that the final hearing had been completed. He recessed the court before issuing his ruling.
Saakashvili, who now resides in Kyiv, has been charged with "abuse of power" and accused of trying to cover up evidence about the murder of Georgian banker Sandro Girgvliani.
Saakashvili is also charged with abusing his presidential powers by issuing pardons for four men who were convicted in 2006 of murdering Girgvliani.
Girgvliani, who headed the foreign department of United Georgian Bank, was found dead in January 2006 outside of Tbilisi with multiple injuries after he was seen arguing in a bar with high-ranking Interior Ministry officials.
Saakashvili was the president of Georgia at the time.
Girgvliani's murder, and the unwillingness of the authorities to investigate his death, resulted in harsh criticism of Saakashvili's government.
Prosecutors now accuse Saakashvili and other former Georgian officials of being accomplices in the falsification of evidence related to the case.
Saakashvili rejects the charges as politically motivated.
Saakashvili's government-appointed lawyer, Sofio Goglichidze, asked in her closing arguments on January 3 for the court to acquit Saakashvili.
Saakashvili says FSB involved in fabricating evidence against him:
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
KYIV -- Mikheil Saakashvili, the leader of Ukraine's Movement of New Forces party and the former president of Georgia, has accused Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) of involvement in the fabrication of evidence used against him at a trial in Kyiv.
Saakashvili made the accusation to reporters after a January 3 court hearing in Kyiv where prosecutors asked the court to place him under house arrest for refusing to answer questions from the Main Directorate of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).
Judges adjourned the hearing at the request of prosecutors until January 11 without issuing a ruling.
Ukrainian prosecutors have accused Saakashvili, the former governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, of abetting an alleged "criminal group" led by Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia after his ouster in February 2014.
Ukrainian authorities also claim that protests led by Saakashvili in Ukraine are part of a Russian plot against the government in Kyiv.
Part of the evidence presented in the case is a recording of an alleged telephone conversation between Saakashvili and a pro-Russian Ukrainian businessman who is hiding in Russia.
Prosecutors claim the businessman, Serhiy Kurchenko, offered Saakashvili money to organize protests and public disorder in Ukraine, and that Saakashvili accepted.
Saakashvili, who attended the January 3 Kyiv hearing with his wife and a son, denies all charges.
He told reporters after the hearing that the forensic evidence presented by prosecutors was flawed.
Saakashvili also alleged that the evidence against him was fabricated by the SBU with the involvement of the FSB.
"The so-called forensics saying it was proven that my so-called conversation with Poroshenko was authentic has a lot of flaws," Saakashvili said.
"First of all, I refused to give them a voice sample when I was interrogated by the SBU security service," he said.
"In spite of that, they were able to present forensic conclusions saying that the voice on the tape is mine," Saakashvili said. "But their own expert says in the documentation that the forensic team didn’t have a proper voice sample to make a thorough analysis."
"This reminds me of the old Soviet style when authorities proved the authenticity of whatever they themselves claimed," he said.
Saakashvili has also said the Ukrainian authorities are trying to deny him temporary protection status and "create conditions" for his "expulsion from the country" so he can be extradited to Tbilisi, where he faces charges of abusing his office as president of Georgia.
"Ten minutes ago a trial against me started in Tbilisi, the same time as in Kyiv," Saakashvili said during his Kyiv hearing on January 3. "Do you think it’s by chance? Oligarchs are able to make deals. But they could have at least decided on different times."
On December 18, Saakashvili appeared at the Prosecutor-General's Office in Kyiv but refused to answer questions from investigators there.
He told reporters on December 18 that he would give testimony only when the case was handed over to the SBU, "as required by law."
Saakashvili was president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013.
He gave up his Georgian passport in 2015 when he accepted Ukrainian citizenship in order to take the post of Odesa governor at the request of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Saakashvili resigned from the Odesa post in November 2016, complaining of rampant corruption, and has since become an ardent opponent of Poroshenko. (w/Merkhat Sharipzhanov, Interfax)