Heavily guarded former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been brought from a military hospital in Gori to the Tbilisi City Court where he will stand trial on counts of a violent dispersal of a rally and a takeover of the Imedi television company on November 7, 2007, the Georgian media said.

The trial will begin in about an hour. Police have been deployed in the court yard, and riot police buses and water cannons are parked about 200 meters from the court building.

Saakashvili's supporters are gathering near the court.