Ombudswoman: ex-president Saakashvili claims that he goes on hunger strike in prison
Nino Lomjaria noted that ‘no force was used during or after the arrest’ as he did not resist and was alone. Photo: IPN.
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Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has visited the recently detained ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili in the prison of Rustavi and has announced that Saakashvili considers himself a political prisoner and starts a hunger strike.
Lomjaria also stated that as a citizen of Ukraine Saakashvili requested a meeting with the Ukrainian consul.
As Mikheil Saakashvili said he was detained today in one of the residential houses in Tbilisi. He said he was alone,” said Lomjaria.
Ombudswoman also said that they did not discuss the issue of how Saakashvili managed to cross the border of Georgia at the meeting in prison.
She noted that ‘no force was used during or after the arrest’ as he did not resist and was alone.
Saakashvili, who is charged with several criminal offences, was arrested yesterday in Tbilisi.
It still remains unclear how the former president crossed the border of Georgia as he posted two videos on October 1 from Georgia’s coastal city of Batumi.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party claimed that the videos were fake while the United National Movement (UNM) party says that Saakashvili has been in the country for the last several days.
Mikheil Saakashvili who served as the country’s third president from 2004 to 2013 pledged earlier in September to return to Georgia ahead of October 2 municipal elections.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has stated that she will never pardon former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili who has been arrested on October 1 in Tbilisi. She noted that the rule of law requires detention of Saakashvili saying that ‘before the law all are equal.’
Overall six criminal charges are filed against recently arrested Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili who has been convicted to six years of imprisonment in two cases while four other criminal cases are still being heard in Tbilisi City Court.
The United National Movement (UNM) opposition party held a media briefing earlier today in which they said that the Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili has ‘really returned’ ahead of tomorrow’s municipal elections. UNM representative Eka Kherkheulidze said that she doesn't know how Saakashvili managed to return. However, she added that the ‘country’s intelligence service is even unable to prevent the entry of Russian spies.’
Head of the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party Irakli Kobakhidze says that Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s recently released video allegedly from the Georgian city of Batumi is a fake and that Saakashvili is a ‘clown.’ “I can say for sure that the video is fake. Saakashvili is not in Georgia,” Kobakhidze said. The Georgian Interior Ministry also claims that Saakashvili has not crossed the Georgian border.
Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili released a live video allegedly from Georgia’s coastal city of Batumi late yesterday and said that he is already in Georgia ahead of tomorrow’s municipal elections. In the video Saakashvili has urged the public to vote for the United National Movement (UNM) in the elections and if not the UNM, then some other, smaller, ‘real opposition parties’ and not for the Georgian Dream ruling party (GD) or ex-PM Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party.
The third Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has announced today that he will come back to Georgia for the upcoming October 2 municipal race. Saakashvili in his video address, published on his Facebook page, called on Georgian emigrants to join him and come back to the country for the elections. Saakashvili who served as the country’s third president from 2004 to 2013 left Georgia back in 2013 facing several criminal charges after the Georgian Dream (GD) came to power.
In a letter from a Rustavi detention facility ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili says all criminal accusations against him are false. Addressing the Georgian population, Saakashvili says when he ‘left everything in Kyiv’ and arrived in Georgia he was aware that ‘most probably’ he would have been detained.
Opposition United National Movement (UNM) MP Levan Khabeishvili has announced a ‘large-scale’ demonstration to release recently detained Georgian former president Mikheil Saakashvili and called on the public to join. "We must start preparing for a large rally, the whole of Georgia must stand on its feet...Let's start organising from here and interacting with each other,” says Khabeishvili in his Facebook post.
Georgian former President Mikheil Saakashvili allegedly entered Georgia’s Black Sea port city of Poti via Ukrainian private company UkrFerry’s boat Vilnius ‘hidden in a truck,’ the Georgian Public Broadcaster’s (GPB) weekly analytical program New Week reports. The GPB says Saakashvili set foot in Georgia on September 29 at nine p.m. via boat which departed from the trading port of Chernomorsk in the Odessa region.
Police have arrested several supporters of recently detained former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in front of Rustavi prison earlier today as a result of a clash between protesters and law enforcers. The largest opposition United National Movement (UNM) party supporter Zviad Kuprava has been arrested along with several other protesters who aimed to make inscriptions 'Freedom to Misha' on the walls of the prison.
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly C. Degnan says that she is glad a multidisciplinary team is monitoring former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili in prison, noting that the US is also closely observing his condition.