Georgian patriarch asks Saakashvili to stop hunger strike
Patriarch’’s secretary Mikael Botkoveli visited ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili in prison earlier today.
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Georgian Patriarch Ilia II has requested the country’s third president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is currently serving a prison term in Rustavi Prison No.12, to suspend hunger strike ‘which is not a Christian way of behaviour.’
The secretary of Ilia II, Mikael Botkoveli, visited Saakashvili in prison earlier today and conveyed to him the patriarch’s ‘blessing and the request on behalf of the church to stop the hunger strike.’
Saakashvili went on hunger strike on October 1, shortly after he was detained in the Sanzona neighbourhood of Tbilisi.
His lawyer says that the ex-president still lacks a TV set and a mattress.
The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) MP Mikheil Sarjveladze says that if Saakashvili’s health worsens, it will not be the fault of the GD.
My letter from prison
— Mikheil Saakashvili (@SaakashviliM) October 2, 2021
My dear associates and my Georgian community.
When I left Kyiv and came here, I knew that I would most likely be arrested, with fabricated, false verdicts which were issued by order of Putin. No country in the world except Russia recognizes this sentence... pic.twitter.com/ffA8VPvhz6
Prisoners are never released because they are on hunger strike,” Sarjveladze said, adding that doctors will treat Saakashvili in the case of any health complications.
Saakashvili, now a citizen of Ukraine who chairs the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Reforms Council, was arrested in a flat in Tbilisi on October 1, ahead of the October 2 municipal elections.
Saakashvili claims that he ‘put his life at risk’ to help his UNM party win the municipal elections and remove the Georgian Dream government from power via snap parliamentary elections.
He was convicted in 2018 in Georgia in absentia for abuse of authority and has also been charged with four other crimes, including ‘illegally crossing the border’ from Ukraine to Georgia.